The Buzz: Issue 21 - Highlander Worldwide

Le Bourdonnement
Highlander à travers le monde
Le fan club officiel d'Highlander
NumÈro 21 DÈcembre 2004
ISSN 1441-8894
Solstice d'hiver Èdition
The Buzz: Issue 21 Rédacteur en chef: Carmel Macpherson Table des matiEres
Direction de la production: Monica Duff A word from the President …………………………………………..….…. 3 Réalisateur Photo: Nancye Elliott HLWW6………………………………………………….……………..….….4 Ont participé à ce numéro : Carmel Macpherson, Shelley Schermer, Aine Gliddon, Pat Gracie, Nancye Elliott, Mary Glynn, Susan White, Sharon Lowachee, Judith Smith, Chris Hendrickson, Darlene Scully, Mary Anne Schultz (and Buster the Rat!) Liberty, Fraternity, Immortality..………………………………..……….....5 Photo de première de couverture: Photo by Nancye Elliott, Background by John Mosby, Design by Monica Duff Mary’s Memories of France……………..….………………….….……......17 Dessinʹ de quatrième de couverture: Photo by Nancye Elliott, Design by Monica Duff Memorable Moments, Memorable Quotes………………………..….…...20 Directeur de la redaction: Sonia Hines How to have lunch with a Hunk & Friends without really trying…......11 Memories ~ A Conversation.……………….………………….....….……..12 Chris The Hermit’s Wacky Tour Adventures….………………...….…....13 A Minion’s Tale…………. …………………………………..…….………..14 Reflections from our Guest of Honor...………….……………….…….….18 More Than Meets The Eye..…………………………………….…..……….21 Photos: Nancye Elliott, Pat Gracie, Susan White, Aine Gliddon, Shelley Schermer, Carmel Macpherson Autres Photos: © Panzer‐Davis and all entities holding the rights to Highlander. No infringement intended, no copyright claimed. LOTR image copyright to New Line. No infringement intended. A Rat’s Tour Of France………………………………………….….……….22 A Snippet of Memory…………………………………………….………….27 A Dinner To Remember……………………………………….…………….28 Shelly’s Excellent Adventure………………………………….……………30 The Best Thing…………………………………………………….………….45 Jude’s Memories……………………………………………….……………..46 Many thanks to all who submitted arti‐
cles and photos for this issue of The Buzz. Encounters with Peter Wingfield…………………………………………..47 Note: No Immortals were harmed in the making of this newsletter. A few more memories...……………………………………………………..50 French Tour Ramblings……………………………………………………..49 Highlander à travers le monde
Le fan club officiel d'Highlander
Apt 27, 7 Victoria Park Pde
Zetland, NSW, 2017
Australia
http://www.highlanderworldwide.com
Queries? Contact: [email protected]
2
Welcome to the French Tour edition of The Buzz!
A catch-up with Carmel Macpherson
I
8. We role model tolerance of different culinary experi‐
ences as we explore different places with different people. (hands up those who tried the snails in Paris!) remember once in Los Angeles when a whole bunch of us were sitting having breakfast in Dinnyʹs Diner and the Contessa started a conversation about the selfless‐
ness of HL fans...and we came up with a list of why our love and support of HL was so important to the continuing viability of the planet! Essentially we decided, over a to‐
tally decadent breakfast of endless hotcakes, that it would be a grossly irresponsible act NOT to be a Highlander fan: 1. Having such fun and connecting with so many other people must send lots of healthy chemicals throughout our systems thus leading to a longer and better quality life ‐ thus we are less a burden on the health system. 2. We are less demanding on family and friends for enter‐
tainment 3. Thinking about immortality means we find it easy to focus on the importance of preserving the planet and lend‐
ing our voice to such ventures. 4. We single‐handedly keep many airlines and hotels afloat and keep many people employed in the wider tourism and t‐shirt industry as we travel the world following the Im‐
mortals, and discovering places we would never have vis‐
ited were it not for Highlander. 5. We are unacknowledged UN Ambassadors as we seek out and nurture international friendships. 6. We teach our children the importance of independence as they are given opportunities to feed and clean them‐
selves and any other family members as we gather for our important conventions. 7. We role model simplified dressing via our Zen like jeans and t‐shirts focus; 9. We role model the importance of women mastering the latest in computers and associated gadgets and under‐
standing the importance of computer technology to forge the communication bonds that keep virtual communities vibrant. (Hands up those who would never have discov‐
ered how to mount a web page/tap into a CHAT/scan a picture etc etc). 10. We offer opportunities for people to discover new skills (waving to Nancye and her camera) as they are thrown in at the deep end and requested to produce something won‐
derful.... Most importantly, we are at the bleeding edge of virtual global communities, demonstrating that externals like age, weight, color, gender, sexual preference, political leanings ‐ all these can be set aside and strong friendships forged when they are not the first things we find out and assess about each other before deciding whether to talk with each other. We get to know each other first as people with a common interest ‐ and the rest is virtually irrelevant. The tour to France is a wonderful example of our fandom at work. Total strangers became good friends and in so doing learnt things about themselves and a distant country and culture that they would otherwise never have had the opportunity or perhaps inclination to do. This was HLWW’s first event on non‐English speaking soil and as such was initially daunting. Once we used the same tech‐
niques however that we use all the time in the club‐ calling on the skills and willingness of others, then it all started to fall into place. Andi Sharpe was worth her weight in gold and via a friend (waving in gratitude to Isabelle) in France was able to organize our visits to the Submarine Base and Ferrieres. Kelly Andrews was her usual incredible self and made sure that anything that needed to happen with Peter happened. 3
Peter: “Do I need to bring anything in particular?” Carmel: “Yep – your gorgeous long black coat from the show…” Peter: “I can do better! I still have my black cashmere jumper from the show…” Carmel falls to floor in faint, mumbling…”Yep…throw that in as well…” And thus it was that we got to walk through all those in‐
credible Highlander sites in Paris with Peter looking like he had just stepped onto the set of Highlander. This edi‐
tion of The Buzz is replete with memories and observa‐
tions of those who were fortunate enough to come to France. Thank you to all of them for taking the time to share those experiences with other fans. You will also see advertisements in this edition for the many upcoming HLWW events we have in the pipeline. Come and join us and prepare to have an incredible time filled with fun and continuing friendships. Best wishes from all of us at HLWW to you and yours for a safe and happy festive season. Carmel Macpherson President, HLWW
W
here has 2004 gone? We have no idea. But it’s gone so fast, there is now a bare 5 months left before HLWW 6. All information about this convention is available on the website, of course, but the brief version is as follows: Date: April 29 to May 1, 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia Confirmed Guests (thus far!): Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield, David Abamowitz and F Braun McAsh Cost: $200 U.S. (not including the Sat night event—still being planned!) The convention will be held in the Maritime Mu‐
seum at Darling Harbour in Sydney, amd a con‐
vention accommodation rate is being organized through the nearby Novotel Hotel (well within walking distance!). There are, of course, many other accommodation options to choose from, ranging from other nearby hotels to youth hostels both in and around Sydney. For more information check out the HLWW web‐
site: http://www.highlanderworldwide.com/ 4
Liberty, Fraternity, Immortality
By Pat Gracie
I
’m not a trivia buff and don’t really care which estate was used to film what episode so the French tour was mostly an excuse for me to go to France with folks I knew or expected to like and to experience a bit of French culture in a specialized way. Eventually I decided I ought to see something of France other than Highlander‐related sites so I took another tour of parts of France before joining the HL group. Thus I was a tad burned out on chateaux before we even got going, even the chateaux fought in, loved in, or merely visited by Duncan MacLeod and the guys and gals of HL! A little gilding goes a long way in my architectural style‐
book and the formal style of much of Duncan’s exploit sites is very gilded. But good fun is good fun and that’s what this tour promised and delivered, along with enough plain country French sights to make my heart glad. Be warned that I didn’t take any notes so if my account gets episodes or place wrong it is not Carmel’s fault. She KNEW all the details. Almost anyone knows more trivia that I do, but that woman is a wonder! To help our journey along, we were even provided with songbooks and a great tour book to carry in the neat HLWW tour bag, along with a custom‐
designed tour T‐shirt. . We began our journey in France in Paris at our base hotel, the Bleu Marine Hotel in Montparnasse, a modern, com‐
fortable hotel, adequate for our purposes and thankfully, with no gilding. Our quest for HL sites, although organized and skillfully led by Carmel, was aided and abetted, some‐
times against her will, by Huguette, our very French tour guide. Poor Huguette, she really thought she was going to instigate some type of appreciation of things French among us. She probably succeeded more than she realized, but she was thwarted by our insistence that it was really the HL‐ related sites that we had come to see. She never gave up on trying to educate us and even on our next to last day, was shocked by Carmel’s declaration that Notre Dame was “insignificant” as nothing HL had been filmed there. It turned out however, that Huguette was a very useful source. Like the very model of modern explorers, we toured with laptop and HL season DVDs, the better to get just the right angle for the photo or to check out the archi‐
tectural details to be sure we had the right church or stair way. All we lacked were the GPS coordinates, which I ex‐
pect Carmel will add on the next French tour when she finds and documents the many sites we left undiscovered. As it was, Huguette got to watch Deliverance with us, the first of many parts of various episodes she’d have to see as we crouched around Carmel in some nook or stairway. Thus, after a satisfying day on the coast of Normandy in Etretat, where we’d seen the church where Duncan and Methos argue and Duncan does wheelies on the tiny grass plot while stealing a car, it was Huguette who recognized where we needed to be the next day. She saw that the scenes where Duncan comes ashore in France and seduces the captain’s wife were not Le Havre as the episode tells us, but were the nearby village of Honfleur. So off we went to see those sites, driven by the charming bus driver, Freddy, who himself knew HL and found for us the site of the butcher shop and folks who had been there for the filming. Honfleur turned out to be one of the most charming spots I’d seen in three weeks in France. It is a quaint fishing vil‐
lage with lovely shops, many waterside cafes and a lovely wooden church. As we arrived, a troop of folk dancers in local Normandy costumes, some shod in wooden shoes, strolled by and stopped to entertain us with dancing and to 5
chat a bit. After a satisfying day in Honfleur, we were back in Paris for the night then off to Bordeaux via the French bullet train, the TGV. Bordeaux is the site of Rev 6:8, where on our first day we enjoyed a quick bus trip to see the fountain where Duncan disarms Kronos’ bomb and the outside of the hotel where Duncan and Cassandra stayed. We also had some free time to poke around the local shops and eater‐
ies. Our hotel seemed primed for our visit as it had a movie theme with the doors and rooms of the floor we stayed on all decorated with horror movie pictures. The hotel was sited in the modern section of Bordeaux. That modernism took the style of grim post‐war concrete apartment and office tow‐
ers, a style that was not at all lovely and never likely to be shown as tourist at‐
tractions in the years to come. 6
Across the street was a modern shopping center where some of us bought scarves and various souvenirs, the first time we’d had much time for shopping. One can’t tour France without acquir‐
ing scarves. It is apparently THE thing to do. The following day, we visited the lobby of the Hotel de Seze where Duncan and Cassandra enjoyed some private time during their adventures with the Fab 4. Then we were off to see the bridge where Duncan kills Caspian. Enroute we passed by the submarine base, where Carmel yelled to the bus driver, “Don’t let them off the bus,” for fear she’d never get us back on schedule again. Then, confounding the schedule, we went on an unscheduled quest. Did we find the church where Methos once again tries to have a mean‐
ingful chat with MacLeod? Maybe not but the quest surely was fun. Peter Wingfield happened to ring up Carmel during our bridge‐viewing lookabout and told her the church was “somewhere” outside Bordeaux. So off we went. We quested through several villages, passing acres of luscious looking grapes being harvested and carted off to be transformed into wine. We saw miles of the French wine country and several vil‐
lages. As every village has a church with an appropri‐
ate looking cemetery, this quest had long odds on success. We could only look for a particular archi‐
tectural style. One church looked similar but as we couldn’t get in it to check the interior, I guess we’ll never be sure. However, tooling around in the coun‐
tryside gave us all a better look at a different part of France and I’m glad the quest took us so afield. Even better, it provided a great site for lunch at an outdoor café along a lovely river. Back in Bordeaux, the sub‐
marine base awaited us. It is a great hulking building‐ concrete, dark, damp, cav‐
ernous, dusty, full of cob‐
webs and apparently not a success at any of its post‐war reincarnations. Outside, there’s a four story high free‐
standing metal bewigged Frenchman looking down on the parking lot, seemingly unflustered by the metal horse sticking through his torso and the wires sprouting about his knees. Inside, an austere modern sculpture exhibition was being readied, stone and metal in various abstract renderings. The remains of what had hoped to be a mari‐
time museum seem to be moored here and there in some of the former submarine bays. One bay had been tricked out as an apparently seldom‐used dance and perform‐
ance theatre site. We posed on the steps. We took lots of photos. We were happy pilgrims! Finally when it was time to leave, the guide showed us to a room hidden deep in the damp, crumbling darkness. He said it had been the site of the laboratory room during filming. With only his flashlight for illumination, it was hard to tell what we were seeing, even in the pres‐
ence of a metal cylinder he said was the sole relic of the items built by the show. Emerging once again into the sunlight, it was hard not to think about how difficult it must have been to prepare that Our guide said he’d been there during the HL filming and that there was only one item built by the show still remain‐
ing. He guided us part way into the submarine bays. It was sort of like being in a giant concrete storage shed with wa‐
ter extending the length of each bay all the way out to the river. There was bright sunlight at the river end and pale watery reflected light at the end we visited. One could eas‐
ily envision those slots being filled with submarines. Our guide intended that we go no further than midway but we knew that Bay Nine had been used in filming and wanted to see it. The guide said there was nothing special about it. We pre‐
vailed. And guess what? The metal furniture was still there. Methos’ chair, the round table, the brazier into which Kronos throws the chicken leg, the odd Sputnik looking device hanging overhead, …all of it. The steps Duncan spoke to Kronos from as Methos watches and eventually gets his orders to go get Silas...all were there. Including the odd insignia on the wall. 7
Back in Paris, we once again traveled to the center of the city for supper in a French restau‐
rant. We had several evening meals in down‐
town Paris, learning a bit about French cuisine and seeing a great deal of the city in our trav‐
els. During one of our early Paris bus rides Carmel had pointed out the manhole cover in front of the old Opera House as the place building for the episode we have seen. Lighting and sound must have been extremely hard. Acting would have been both made more difficult and more intense in that physical environment. We had days more to seek HL sites, back in the Paris environs. On Wednesday we traveled about an hour outside Paris to Chantilly, a chateau be‐
longing to the Montmorency and Conde families in the 14th to 19th centuries. There, in addition to tour‐
ing a bit of the estate, we had a group photo take on the steps where Duncan and Richie enjoyed that bottle of cognac in Prodigal Son and where Duncan whacked Hyde. The photo had to be at just the right angle on just the right step so we too, would have the statue of Francis I and the chateau roof behind us in the just the right place. Sometimes other tourists must have wondered at what we were about as we looked at the lap‐
top for confirmation of our various positions. This was also the site of the grandstand where MacLeod has the famous Quickening where the paper flies all around, the chapel in the flashback scene in Prodigal Son and the horse ring where Duncan and Case meet and fight in The Im‐
mortal Cimoli. Thursday we visited Provins, a tiny medieval walled town, still lived in today. Among its sights are a tower, (Rebecca’s home and old church. It is the site where Re‐
becca trained Amanda and was used as the Verona loca‐
tion where Duncan meets the two of them in Legacy. After a lovely meal in an outdoor café there, we toured a local museum and took a tram ride around the town. On the outside of the town, modern stoneworkers are repairing a section of the walls of the town, rebuilding towers and wall in the medieval style. That’s certainly not a sight to be seen everyday. 8
where Duncan took Richie down to Ursa’s lair. She prom‐
ised that we‘d see it again. I don’t think Huguette be‐
lieved that we really would be visiting a manhole cover but she had not yet learned the extent of our devotion to the cause. At any rate, the manhole cover visit became the subject of much speculation and joking. On Thursday night, the Aussie trio went off to the airport to fetch in Peter Wingfield and the rest of us naturally hung out in the hotel bar to make sure they all got in safely. Our fellow bar patrons were beginning to have interesting accents. It turned out that Ireland was playing France in a Soccer World Cup match and there would be 25,000 green‐clad Irish fans in Paris that weekend, some of whom we eventually saw in another venue. On Friday, accompanied by Peter who was wearing the long black raincoat of HL fame, we bussed off to Ferrieres, a former Rothschild family estate on the outskirts of Paris. It was used as the Watchers’ headquarters in the eps where Joe is tried by the Tribunal and is the site of the Amanda as dancing girl scene in Finale. Once again we huddled about the laptop trying to get just the view of the right room and right lawn area to make sure all our photos were accurate. Midday featured an impromptu lunch stop in a village restaurant that was not expecting 20 or so visitors. While the management took a bit of time deciding if it could seat all of us, several of the group wandered off to find a patis‐
series or other purveyor of fine delicacies. The rest of us got to enjoy a nice sit‐down meal in the company of Mr. Wing‐
field. Methos probably would have been amused at the prospect of dining in a ski gear decorated rural French res‐
taurant with a dozen or so women of various nationalities, backgrounds and ages. I’m not overlooking the presence of John Mosby, who while ostensibly there to interview Peter, was also documenting something of our travels. I’m sure that Peter was also bemused by us from time to time. It was fun watching him watch us, pose for thousands of snap‐
shots and occasionally decide to play games with posing or offering up a quip of his own. While we strolled from site to site, we all had ample opportunity to probe Peter’s recol‐
lections of filming and of other topics of mutual interest. In the afternoon, we journeyed to Chaalis, the site of an abbey dating from the 7th century and for our purposes, the ruins used as the site of Rebecca’s death at Luther’s hands. The ruins were quite interesting with tumbled column frag‐
ments and broken capitals laying all about. The site also contained a lovely 16th century chapel with beautiful fres‐
coes and great gargoyles. We had only a short time to ex‐
plore the items in the museum, one of which was said to be a fragment of the tomb of Tamerlaine. One of the down‐
sides to travel specializing in HL sites is the short time available to explore all the other aspects of the various sites! I know there was some other HL connection to this site that I missed as Peter said he’d had a fight scene in front of the gates here but had not known there was an abbey beyond them. He spent some time on his own ex‐
ploring and looking thoughtful. Perhaps Methos was again visiting him. 9
Finally we came to Saturday. We spent the day, with Peter, in Paris, viewing scenes you would all recog‐
nize. First to the Quai de la Tournelle (with that lovely view of “insignificant” Notre Dame), the very site t h e b a r g e w a s moored, Methos’ tun‐
nel, where we all got our individual photos taken with Peter in his Methos garb and an‐
other group photo at the tunnel. Peter r e e n a c t e d the scene where he accosts Dun‐
can in the tunnel. All that was missing was fog! And Duncan. We were then off to the Church of St. Julien le P a u v r e ( D a r i u s ’ c h u r c h ) , Shakespeare and Company, St. Severin, and finally the Eiffel Tower, where after watching hundreds of Irish soc‐
cer fans playing and singing in the rain under the tower, we journeyed to the second level to venture out in the rain to where Duncan and Amanda danced the tango. That evening, the rain stopped and on a cool Paris eve‐
ning, we did the dinner cruise on the Seine. The city was illuminated and music was in the air. We had good food and wine at hand. Carmel rotated Peter among our tables so we all got a good shot at talking with him. He was chatty and seemed to enjoy himself as much as we did. What a funny thing has evolved from this fandom! Who 10
would have ever dreamed when we fell for a TV show that we’d someday be hav‐
ing dinner on the Seine with Methos? At the end of the cruise, as we awaited our bus, an American woman came up to us and asked Peter if he was one of the fellows in Highlander. He said he’d have to admit that he was. She then raved a bit about him and his performance in Wedding Dress and took many pictures. He told her we were all seeing Paris to‐
gether. When she left, we kidded him about being such a recognizable star. It seemed an odd perspective now to us. We weren’t just fans, but people who had shared a special time. A kind of magic had indeed happened. We had a lovely bus ride in the Paris night back to our hotel where we said goodbye to Peter. He autographed our tour books and gave each of us a nice autographed picture. Methos would be smiling at our adventures to‐
gether, perhaps he’d even be smirking, but he’d have en‐
joyed the whole time. Our tour time continued on Sunday, with a visit to Sacre Coeur (the grass plot in front is where Tessa is first seen by How to have lunch with a Hunk & Friends
without Really Trying
By Mary Anne
H
ave you ever wondered how you can have lunch with Peter and a few close friends without really trying? Well follow my instructions very carefully and you too may find yourself enjoying lunch with Peter Wingfield and a few of the ladies from Australia. (Naturally it helps if you are a natural ʺGraceʺ and break your foot just before leaving to go on a Highlander tour.) Duncan in To Be) and to that famous manhole cover at the Opera House. After a short visit inside the very ornate Op‐
era building, we trouped out to the traffic island in front to see the manhole cover. Parked next to it was a Paris Police car, with several officers standing about doing something with paperwork. If we’d have been terrorists documenting the Paris infrastructure, we’d have been a success. Despite the presence of a multi‐national group of women and John Mosby (whatever will he write about this?) taking loads of pictures, not one of the policemen gave us a glance! No wonder Duncan could wreak so much mayhem in Paris and get away with it! Another HLWW tour drew to a close. There was friend‐
ship, learning, wonder, fun, good food, good wine, the beauty and history of France, the promised sights and sites, the occasional surprise, the pleasure of Peter’s company, with an occasional Methosian moment. Many thanks to our fellow tour members for the various types of thought‐
ful consideration extended to each other. A special blessing for Huguette, who kept on trying and was fun to be around. Kudos to Carmel, Aine and Nancye for making it happen and for keeping us together and on schedule. Thanks to Peter Wingfield for giving us lots of chances to talk and joke with him and enjoy his filming recollections and for being so easily amused by this adventurous group of fans. *~*~*~*~* The first thing you need to do is be daft enough to wonder around Paris without a coat in fifty degree weather. Then you need to find an open air cafe with heat lamps in the ceiling of each table. (It helps if the name of the cafe is Cafe Leffe right next to the Shakespeare and Company Book‐
store.) First you find an open table. Then you very inso‐
lently offer the director of the tour an opportunity to set down as since by then she looks ready to drop. Next you move over to make room for your new best friend, Nancye, who has patiently waited you to catch up with the rest of the tour. As your special reward for being kind the cosmos will reach out and reward you by having Peter sit down to join you for brunch. Now it is important to remember that this is not about you so when Peter and Nancye start talking about her trip to Tibet you have to sit back and let the meals and conversa‐
tion unfold. After all Nancye has been so kind to you that she deserves her moment in the sun. As your special re‐
ward you have a set of very special memories to take with you of an actor relaxing and being himself and a friend sharing a very special moment in their life. ʺMost excel‐
lent!ʺ Please remember Kindness is contagious pass it on.
*~*~*~*~*
11
Memories - A Conversation
by Nancye Elliott
I
was talking to Carmel one day and told her I was going to put some of my Tibet photos into the HLWW6 Art Show in Sydney next year. She then got one of those really scary looks on her face that says to the truly trauma‐
tised: “I have an idea!” She continued, grinning all the while, “Why don’t you make up a photo album? We can get Peter to sign it since Methos was in Tibet …and …we can get Adrian to sign it as Duncan because of course he was in Tibet in ʹThe Pathʹ.” So, said photo album was put together and bought to Paris for Peter to sign. I showed it to John when he arrived, as he had been very kind about my photos. John was chatting with Peter over lunch about travel and travel photos. He mentioned my photo album to Peter who then expressed a wish to see it… So thus the conversation came about. Saturday, we were sitting in “Duncan and Tessa’s” Café just opposite Notre Dame waiting for our order. I was sit‐
ting opposite Peter. I took a deep breath and asked him if now would be an appropriate time for him to look at the photo album. “Yeah, sure,” he replied with a smile. So I unwrapped it and handed it over. I don’t know how many people have ever been the sole recipient of Peter’s undivided attention, but let me tell you it is something else! He is so totally focussed; his body is still and he looks you straight in the eye. You are not in any doubt that he is paying absolute attention to all that you say. He didn’t just glance at each photo (eighteen in all) but studied them intently. He raised his eyebrows, grinned, made comments and asked for explanations. I have to say that he saw things in the photos that I haven’t seen, even given the number of times I have looked at them. 12
Not content with just looking at the photos he began to ask questions about the trip in general. Where, why, who, how. Carmel then suggested that I tell him the trials and tribulations we had just trying to get to Tibet. So the con‐
versation continued as I told him of some of the highlights: the amazing time spent visiting a Buddhist nunnery; our day spent at the Norbulingka (the Dalai Lamaʹs Summer Palace) where I discovered the “roof stompers”, and how we sat with a wonderful young monk and talked for ages, then had him give us a personal tour of the grounds, in‐
cluding places that tourists donʹt usually see. Peter, end‐
lessly curious, asked question after question. I couldn’t honestly say how long we spoke. To me it seemed forever, but in reality I suppose it must have been at least half an hour. However long it was, itʹs a time Iʹll never forget. Of course, did the photo album get signed? No… First Carmel was just going to get Peter to sign it, then Peter and Adrian to sign it. Then Peter was to write some comments about some of the photos. This is why I took it to Paris, to give him some time to look at it and think about what he might write. Then Carmel got that scary “I have an idea” look again. We ‐‐ as in I ‐‐ would find some Buddhist quotes for Peter to write in it and Carmel would find some quotes from “The Path” for Adrian to write, and then we would get them to sign it. Who knows what Car‐
mel’s next “ i d e a ” might be…? The album is back at home sitting on my book‐
shelf wait‐
ing… Still, I am glad it came to Paris. Chris The Hermit's Wacky Tour
Adventures
pened from anyone else whoʹd like to enlighten me. Later I heard Aine went back to try to find me and just missed coming back to Paris on the same train. Thanks Aine! by Chris Hendrickson
A
fter visiting my friend Antje at the fabulous resort where she lives in north Germany, I came to Paris on the train via Amsterdam. Nice people (hi Bea‐
trice!) gave me Paris metro tickets to such a generous extent that I wound up never actually buying one. Arriving at the hotel I met several of the other tour partici‐
pants at the bar (of course.) Our first excursion to Nor‐
mandy was fantastic. Iʹll never forget the view from the church over the cliffs by the sea at Etretat. I must have bought a dozen postcards of it. Then our intrepid guide, Huguette, clued us in to locations in Honfleur presented in the show as Le Havre. Who could forget the costumed, dancing villagers? How on earth did Carmel arrange that? Then Peter joined us and my remaining mental and physi‐
cal state dissolved. He seemed to have almost as much fun as we did. Everyone got their picture taken with Peter by Methosʹ tunnel. Martha pushed me, or I wouldnʹt have had the guts to do this. What a time we had on the cruise! Carmel sat Peter right across from me ‐‐ yikes! All in all, I had a fabulous time and made many terrific memories which will last forever. How could I forget the wind and rain on the Eiffel Tower, or Carmel taking pictures of my legs under the table at the cruise? Or the unexpectedly phe‐
nomenal enjoyment I got while doing the laundry? Thank you Carmel, Aine and Nancye for putting this together. Thank you Judith, my roommate, for putting up with me. Iʹll see you all in Sydney! *~*~*~*~* Bordeaux, our next excursion destination, was also beautiful, and had a few straggly palm trees. But I managed to fall victim to sunstroke in the daytime and heatstroke at night, annoying everyone. When we visited the beautiful chateau at Chantilly, I had a kind of Twilight Zone experience. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, everyone was gone. After an hour of searching, I realized I had to get back to Paris on my own. Getting directions from the guy at the gate, I trucked a couple of kilo‐
meters to the train station at Chantilly. Apparently while I was on the john, everyone decided to change the departure time, pack into the bus and split without me. Iʹd love to hear what really hap‐
13
A Minion's tale of france
by Aine Gliddon
R
egular readers of ‘The Buzz’ will be coming famil‐
iar with this scenario: Car‐
mel is some place where her head goes, her faithful droids/minions in pursuit, when she has one of her ideas. In this instance, visualise Scotland – September 2002, the island of Iona to be exact. Carmel strides forth across the island (a mystical lowland place, with heath and bogs surrounded by an almost Mediterranean blue sea) – stops – “I think our next tour should be to France, 2004.” “Yes, Carmel” *~*~*~* Life moved on…3 months of bush‐
fires in early 2003 while I was working in the south of NSW, fol‐
lowed in May by HLWW5 in Bris‐
bane. April: Peter said, “Yes!” More meetings, more planning. The registrations start coming in. *~*~*~* August – I take off to UK (abandoning my fellows) to catch up with my family and take my mother to Ireland for 3 weeks (she is Irish and had not been there since 1947). 30th September – arrive Paris, CDG Airport. The first sound I hear is Paris police sirens. When ever I think of Paris I remember the sound of police sirens – they are an ever present background wail. So good that this had not changed in the three years since I was last here. Bus or Metro? The Air France bus was cheap and direct to near our hotel, so opted for the bus. Luggage dumped, quick hallo to My daughter finished High Karen Mines, it was an across Our illustrious leader on Iona—in such place
School and my son came back from town trip on the Metro to Gare de great ideas are born
5 months climbing in Europe … Nord to book a train ticket back to which took us up to the planning for, and presenting of, the London on the Eurostar. I should have been going straight back to Sydney from Paris, but my mum suddenly got a LA Workshop in February of this year. house move from one side of England to the other. “Dear *~*~*~* Next up on the HLWW agenda, the French Tour, to take Boss, will be coming back to work 2 weeks late….” place in October. On the way back I stopped to visit the Quai de la Tournelle (where Duncan’s barge used to live). There were two other Much discussion across the Globe amongst members of the Tour members, Mary and Sandra. “The people you run into HLWW Committee. in Paris….” We met for planning meetings at Carmel’s place. So hard to take. Beside Sydney Harbour – good company, great Back at the hotel others were arriving. Carmel with reams of paper for our Tour Guides and Song Books. Déjà vu – food, fine wine. Someone had to do it J stuffing paper into folders, folders into bags, sorting T‐
Carmel says, “Do you think we should invite Peter to join shirts… Where and when have I done that before? Denver, us in Paris?” Brisbane, LA…. Duh…. 14
Unlike a convention, which is lots of work for Carmel and her minions, the Tour was across a bar called ‘Le Highlander’ to be more of a holiday. (that was named after a War regiment) Carmel and our wonderful guide, Hu‐
Make sure everyone made it guette, negotiate with the locals to pro‐
to where ever we were go‐
vide car transport to the top. Nancye ing and had everything negotiated lunch. I have a great shot of they needed, was about the her waving her hands in the air trying size of our task. I brought to explain what she wanted – she did along a newly purchased not appear too pleased with the result. video camera (with little knowledge or experience of Some walked, some took the transport how exactly I should use it). – one way or another we all made it to In any event, in addition to the top – to be almost blown away by Nancye as Official photog‐
the wind. The view was every bit as rapher, I became the, bud‐
stunning as in the episode and we had ding Official Videographer. the added excitement of a helicopter fly‐
The tour pack
Carmel offered lots of useful ing very low and close to the cliffs. I had hints (she’d picked up from not quite got into the ‘film everything that moves’ mode the HL guru of video – Sonja). The result should be watch‐
and next moment Carmel was gesticulating at me “Aine – able, if not quite the stuff of Oscars. get that!” as said chopper took off into the distance. So, with camera in hand, we set off on our first day of ad‐
Nancye’s ‘Ramblings from a Tour to France’ and other venture to Etretat a small village on the north coast of Nor‐
contributions from Tour members, elsewhere in this issue, mandy and the location of the church on hill scene between Duncan and Methos in Deliverance. It looks so easy in the have covered much of what happened over the next few episode – church on top of a hill overlooking amazing days. Other things I remember: coastline. Reality – church on top of a very steep hill with In Honfleur, a delightful coastal village south of Le Havre no access for our large tourist bus. How to get us all up (location for Deliverance when Duncan goes home to the there? While we view the church from below and come Captain’s wife and where Methos rescues Duncan after the Captain shoots him). A local traditionally dressed dance troop, attending a function, did an impromptu perform‐
ance for us. Our driver, Freddie, showed us the correct way to eat mussels… and bus rollcall had Sharon missing for the first time. We had to get a pre‐9am train from the Montparnasse sta‐
tion, just down the road from our hotel, to go to Bordeaux. To be sure that everyone got there on time Carmel had eve‐
ryone ready, checked out of the hotel, extra luggage the baggage room and making their way down to the station by 8.15. I get down there, vaguely aware that I am missing something…my bag! Rush back to hotel. It was already in the baggage room. Find someone, get it out, rush back to station. “Of all the people thought we’d be waiting for I didn’t expect it to be you!ʺ says Carmel. Then, talking of people and the like going ‘missing’ …. Not so much lost, as not found. The bridge in Revelatons 6:8 where Duncan kills Caspian. Carmel had bought a book on Bordeaux which had a picture of a very like‐looking bridge. Our driver and guide knew where this was and off we went in pursuit. Said bridge was located, photographed 15
went looking. Still, no Chris. Carmel said she probably thought we had gone without her and was likely on the train back to Paris. We had lunch, visited the Horse Centre. Time to go, no sign of Chris. I had been to Chantilly before, via the train, so elected to stay have another look and take the train back. Did that, got back to hotel – and there was Chris. Carmel had it right all along. Next day Peter arrived – no one was going to go missing then. Although, in spite of Carmel’s bus rollcalls, we did almost leave Beatrice behind near ‘Shakespeare & Co’ – driving along “Hey, that’s Beatrice!” The gals gather in front of the church at Etretat by one and all, then, driven across. Later Carmel says, “You know…that wasn’t the bridge…. The sidewalk is on the wrong side.” We’re still not so sure that it wasn’t one of perhaps more than one bridge used – set‐up shot, actual scene and so on. That led to…. Driving around the Bordeaux countryside, looking for the church that Duncan and Methos met and talk at the end of Revelations 6:8. (This was after an earlier fruitless expedi‐
tion in Bordeaux, walking up and down the paths of one particular cemetery). Carmel got out her trusty DVD and, “Yes, this is it.“ ‘It’ was locked and Carmel went off in search of someone who might have a key. Meanwhile eve‐
ryone lined up to peer through the keyhole to see inside. Sonja took a photo. Later Carmel decides, “You know…that couldn’t have been the church, wrong this that and the other.” In any event, it was fun and looks like an‐
other trip to Bordeaux may be on the cards to have another attempt at finding the correct bridge, church and cemetery. Then there was Chantilly the next day. Chantilly is the location of a few HL episodes: Prodigal Son, The Vam‐
pire, The Immortal Cimoli. In the chateau is an amazing library. I thought I would go find Chris and tell her to come and look at it (Chris works in Boulder at the Univer‐
sity Library). “Anyone seen Chris?” No one had seen Chris for quite a while. We got back to the bus. No Chris. There had been talk earlier of deer. Huguette, our guide, had never seen one and Chris had mentioned to me that we really had to find a deer for her to see. Perhaps she had gone looking in the grounds of the chateau? Carmel and I 16
It was all just too much fun. With Nancye and John down on the Quai after dinner on Friday night, the lights on the water, cruise boats passing by. One morning I went for a walk, just around from our hotel, and came across a very traditional Paris market setting up with an amazing array of foods and flowers. Watching Peter re‐enacting scenes from Highlander at Ferrieres, Chaalis and on the Quai –he was such a good sport. Rain pouring down on the Eiffel Tower, while the Irish sang and played football. The cruise on the Seine – which was lovely, but most of the time, I don’t think anyone was taking too much notice of their sur‐
roundings. While we were waiting for our bus to collect us after a lady comes up to us and says to Peter “I know you”. It turned out she recognised Peter from his role in the Wedding Dress, but she also made the Highlander‐
connection. And, in my quintessential HL experience (dinner with Peter on the Sunday night). In the Metro ‐ Peter crouched on his heels in front of the Paris Metro Map, his Methos coat spread out behind him, trying to figure out which direction we should be going. Me, pointing to the direc‐
tional signs, saying ʺItʹs this way Peter, this wayʺ. Peter standing up, walking past us, towards the direction I was pointing: ʺItʹs this wayʺ, he says. <grin> Iona to France. Next up…Sydney, Leeds, Bora Bora (heaven help me that is going to be something else!) and Vancouver. Occasionally I wonder where this will all end, but with Carmel on the job, I doubt that will be anytime soon. Mary's Memories of France
by Mary
W
ow. Where do I start? Arriving in Paris on Wednesday before the tour was to start; I was in a van alone from airport to hotel. I never saw such drivers in all my life. Perhaps French (maybe Parisian) drivers donʹt believe in driving between the lines. I donʹt think there were lines. Driving up on the sidewalk to get ahead of another car was t h e norm. If there was an inch between cars a car moved in, and cut‐
ting off each other was the thing to do. D r i v i n g around a r ou n da b o u t was a free for all. It was truly amaz‐
ing and this was my first few hours. Then people started to dribble in; I met my roommate Sandra and we hung around hotel that day. On Thursday we took the Metro into ND to see High‐
lander sites. What a great day and tour guide as she knew sites I would never have found. On Friday, we met Jane fresh off her plane and we went off to see sites around the Eiffel Tower. We took one of those open tour buses and had a ball. When the tour started we had a big bus and we all sat each with a window (no fighting for window seats). We got to know Aine and her ever‐present video camera. I think it was glued to her hand. We got used to her running ahead of us to film us coming up to a site, with Nancye and her camera snapping away at us. I canʹt wait for the DVD and photos. There was so much that happened for me seeing the sites where I fell in love with a wonderful TV show I can hardly explain it. I have been to Vancouver a number of times and seeing those sights, no matter how many times, is still spe‐
cial. The sub base was unbelievable. Going into it and seeing some of the props still there I felt like it was Christmas morning and I was a child again. Peter joined us and was as crazy as we were. He truly is a wonderful, gracious, patient man. There was no photo pose he did not do for us. He laughed with us when he heard we had to go photo‐
graph a certain sewer cover in front of the old Paris Opera. (Itʹs where Duncan went in and Richie followed in ʹThe Beast Belowʹ.) One of my favorite moments of Peter was when he was walking down the steps (see Photo) to the Quai. These steps were used in so many episodes. But in this particular episode Methos was walking down with Duncan, and Duncan was telling him the barge is a mess (Deliverance). So there we were at the bottom of the stairs with cameras ready. Now you would think Peter would just walk down the stairs. N O O O O O , not this man. Peter starts down the stairs talking to an invisible Duncan hav‐
ing, I guess, a very nice chat. I have to say this is one of many special m o m e n t s . There were so many more, so many more laughs and w o n d e r f u l moments. 17
reflections FROM OUR GUEST OF HONOR
An interview with Peter Wingfield, by Monica Issacharoff
Y
oung Monica had a chance to catch up briefly with our France Tour Guest of Honor, Peter Wingfield, during the recent Stargate SG‐1 con‐
vention in the U.K. Our thanks to Peter for making time to reflect on the French tour with Monica. *~*~*~* Monica: About the Paris Tour? Peter: Ah yes the Paris Tour…My experience of the Paris Tour was that it was extremely surreal. Riding on the bus in the center of Paris ignoring all the regular sites. I mean that was something that the poor French tour guide never really got to grips with. She was with the group for about four or five days or so. I donʹt really know how long. She kind of got used to the idea that people wanted to see really strange things. When they were down in Bordeaux they wanted to see the sub‐
marine base. I think she kind of got the hang of it that this is not the normal tour group. I donʹt think she really deep down understood. It never became part of her. More of an on the surface understanding for her. Driving around and her desperately trying to point out things like the Cathedral at Notre Dame and having people say, or someone say, in as many words… thatʹs not important. You could see that was shock‐
ing and dis‐
turbing for her. [Peter is laugh‐
ing at this point.] Which kind of had its own crazy humor. I wasnʹt on the bus when they went to the opera. But I heard the sto‐
ries about where they stopped the bus to get a photo of a manhole cover because that was where MacLeod in that episode goes down to the bowels of the opera. That was quite surreal. The boat trip on the Seine and the dinner …that was terri‐
fic. That was really very, very special. Lovely time. Monica: You never did something like that. Have laptop, have DVD, can watch Highlander wherever you go! 18
Peter: I never had. I never really did any touristy things in Paris. Iʹve never been up the Eiffel Tower. That was really great for me. Then we took a trip out to the Rothschild mansion. I have been there several times. Clearly. There is film footage that demonstrates I have been in the gardens and in the rooms many times. The gardens were familiar to me, but the rooms ‐ I didnʹt recognize any of them. I would have sworn Iʹd never been in any of those rooms before because whenever Iʹve been there itʹs to work and the set deco‐
rators, they turned the rooms into something else. And to go into these just bare rooms, itʹs completely alien. Didnʹt trigger any memories whatsoever. And then Carmel would get out the laptop and play scenes… Okay yup… there are the actors inside this room. Thereʹs me standing next to them. Yup that was very, very weird. Quite disturbing actually. [Monicaʹs comment...I believe he is using the British usage of the word disturbing here as he was smiling the whole time! ] Monica: What were your expecta‐
tions of the tour before you got there? Peter : What were you thinking?! [Drawing a laugh from me as well as his minder. At this point his minder went to the other side of this big bar area leaving us pretty much alone.] I wasnʹt thinking anything except I was going back to Paris and I really like Paris. I didnʹt really think of the bus tour. I havenʹt done a bus tour since I was 11 or something. That was Belgian and the tulip fields of Holland. I have‐
nʹt been on that kind of a trip in a very long time. [Peter didnʹt really go on here. I think he was remembering something about that family trip as he had a rather intro‐
spective look about him. Monica: I heard you replicated the scene of the bridge Peter: The scene under the bridge also the scene at the Rothschildʹs Garden. The scene from Forgive us Our Trespasses. That was a lot of fun pretending to have a sword in my hands and getting the moves right. Onto something else...Parisians, filming there and being with JB.... and then I brought up the pig. Peter: Creation of the pig? I knew that Susan had made one. I remember this because she made one for Edan. So I have seen her work before. They were made with fingerprints. So thatʹs kind of cool as well. Somebody asked me if I would put my fingerprints in it. I wouldnʹt mind. But it was a very involved procedure. And there were a couple of choices of the kind of animal I could do with a different finger. It was a very involved process. But I was told I was very good at it. I managed not to smudge it all over the side. I could go into business finger painting. So I brought up the football game under the Eiffel Tower and asked if he wanted to join in. He started to laugh. ] ʺOh yeah. Absolutely. Big international soccer match on that day between the Irish and the French. They were play‐
ing in the evening. During the day we went to the Eiffel Tower. Underneath the Eiffel Tower there was such a sea of drunken Irish kicking a ball up in the air. Kicking this ball as high and as hard as they could up in the sky. Then kick it back up again and again. There was such a joy to it. Such a childlike joy, tremendously infectious to everyone around. . Pouring rain the whole time. Everybody was having a great time. Of course I wanted to join in. Monica: Did you go up to the Tower. See anything? Monica: So did you enjoy the trip? Peter: No it wasnʹt a great view. On one side of the tower it was okay on the other side it was blowing a gale of a wind. Rain in your face. Visibility was not terrific. A pretty damp day. But is was still the Eiffel Tower. Terrific to be up there. Peter: Oh yeah. It brought back wonderful memories. I did enjoy it and thought it was crazy that people did it with me. *~*~*~*~* 19
Memorable MOMENTs, MEMORABLE Quotes
By Aine Gliddon
T
wenty people travelling across France together for a week… you know they had to have a few funny moments, a few funny things said. Here Aine has collected a few memorable moments and quotes from the French tour. They may make more sense to those who were there… but I’m guessing all of us can get a feeling of what a great trip this was, what a great group they were to travel with. Pity we all couldn’t have been there, eh? *~*~*~* Driving through the streets of Paris on Saturday morning. Huguette (the guide) started talking about Notre Dame: “There is Notre Dame, but youʹre sure that you donʹt want to go there? Not even in passing?ʺ Carmel: ʺNo.ʺ Huguette: It is…er… not important?ʺ Carmel: ʺNo, not relevant.ʺ Cue raucous laughter from all in the bus. Peter (in an amusing tone): ʺNot important...we never filmed there...itʹs not important…sigh….ʺ (with a big grin on his face) Hear Huguette swallow her remaining words in not, by now, totally incredible shock. *~*~*~* Peter, in ʹMethosʹ Tunnelʹ, following re‐enactment of scene with Duncan : ʺFirst day on Highlander... Never in my most drug induced dreams did I imagine what it would lead to.ʺ *~*~*~* Driving past the Paris Opera, our Guide, Huguette, starts to tell us about its history and architecture… Carmel leaps from her seat at gesticulates wildly towards the forecourt of the Opera. Carmel: ʺAnd there is the manhole which Duncan and Richie disappear down in ʹThe Beast Belowʹ. *~*~*~* Carmel to Nancye: ʺLens Cap, Nancye!ʺ (multiple times ☺) 20
Huguette: ʺOh la la... He is a super man,ʺ watching Duncan in ʹDeliveranceʹ in Le Havre. *~*~*~* ʺAre we there yet?ʺ (Ed note: Okay, that’s a little too predictable, people!) *~*~*~* Carmel behind reception desk of Hotel De Seze in Bor‐
deaux : Carmel: ʺCan I help you? Would you like a room next to Mr. MacLeod?ʺ *~*~*~* Jane: ʺIf Carmel says so, it must be so.ʺ (At Provins) *~*~*~* Peter: ʺDid I film here?ʺ (on arriving at The Abbey of Chaalis, outside which Peter did shoot the opening scenes to ʹIndiscretionsʹ. He just never noticed the ruined abbey behind the gates!) Carmel finally had a suitable retort for when Peter ribbed her about saying that Notre Dame was irrelevant: Carmel: ʺOh that huge ruined Cistercian Abbey behind me? Didnʹt notice it…not relevant – we were filming High‐
lander!ʺ (The ruins featured in ʹLegacyʹ).
*~*~*~* Nancye: ʺI am adding valium to my little First Aid Kit.ʺ (following our driver Freddieʹs close shave with a car in streets of a town near Honfleur) *~*~*~* Mary Anne (to Peter): ʺMy, you are better looking than I thought you would be.ʺ Mary Anne (foot in mouth) when she met Peter for the first time. (Mary Anne is very new to Highlander – itʹs ok, we understand. ☺) Carmel: ʺWasnʹt it lucky I found this angle!ʺ Nancye: ʺVery lucky!ʺ (mutter mutter) Outside church on cliff top at Etretat (ʹDeliveranceʹ) as Nancye hopes she doesnʹt end up at the bottom of said cliff *~*~*~* Carmel to Huguette, on seeing the view of a very modern Le Havre, wondering where the ʺ #@!$$ !!ʺ they filmed ʹDeliveranceʹ: Carmel: ʺIs there an old part of Le Havre?ʺ Huguette: ʺOn the sea?ʺ *~*~*~* Bus roll call: ʺ1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,1718,19… Who is missing?ʺ (pause) ʺSharon?!ʺ
*~*~*~* Peter (on the trip in from the airport) : ʺSheʹs very deep, isnʹt she?ʺ (Peter, in response to Carmel telling us all about some‐
thing or other…! *~*~*~* Peter: ʺShe’sis getting deep again,ʺ (in reference to further musings from Carmel at dinner on Sunday night. ☺
)
*~*~*~* Carmel (on top of steps in Bordeaux Submarine base) : ʺThree Horsemen of the Apocalypse ‐ doesnʹt quite have the same ring to it, now does it, Kronos?ʺ
*~*~*~* Almost everyone: ʺThere she is again.ʺ (In response to seeing Aine and her video camera!) *~*~*~* Peter, saying goodbye following Seine Cruise on Saturday night : ʺItʹs been a lot of fun for me – really, really good. Given me a very different perspective on Paris...which will stay with me forever. From now on, whenever I come back to Paris thatʹs how it is… Notre Dame is not important.ʺ (big grin)
More Than Meets The Eye
by Susan White
O
n a cliff in Etretat sits a chapel made of stone, overlooking the sea. Its lines are simple and clean, its footprint not too big, not too small, for a chapel. The cliff‐face is alabaster white, while the top of the head‐
land is windswept but green. The offshore breeze on even a mild day is bracing. It’s beautiful here – the land, the chapel. There is a quiet strength. The location scout for Deliverance couldn’t have chosen better the church for a pivotal scene between Duncan MacLeod and Methos. Walking on the land, the wind mak‐
ing a tangled mess of my hair, touching the stone walls of the chapel itself, I discovered meanings I’d overlooked on the flat of the TV screen. In Deliverance, Methos drove a dead MacLeod to this church in his first attempt to reach through the evil that was overwhelming Duncan. This church, without the soar‐
ing heights and flying buttresses of the medieval architec‐
ture so prevalent in MacLeod’s Paris home. Symbolically, the simplicity of the church exterior repre‐
sents the core personality Duncan must rediscover. He must throw off the evil that is upon him, and once more embrace the open, honest, loving person he is at heart. An unadorned, solid church equates to a solid, stable Duncan MacLeod. (Note that I did not write that Duncan is sim‐
ple; he’s not.) The symbolic nature of the location came to me easily; it was the parallel that caught me by surprise. The chapel withstands the elements, beautiful in its hilltop home. Certain, tenacious, strong. A survivor. Oh. Just like Methos. 21
A Rat's tour of france
By Dar
Part One‐ Interview with a Rat By Dar D
uring a recent visit to Paris, I was given the oppor‐
tunity to conduct an interview with a very interest‐
ing young rat named Buster. I was in attendance at the Highlander World Wide Tour of France with a small group of fellow Highlander fans when I met my new friend, Buster the rat, currently associated with the Be K.I.N.D Foundation which is an organization dedicated to improving the behavior pat‐
terns of young human off‐
spring. I was first approached by Buster in the hotel elevator on Friday evening, the night be‐
fore the official start of our tour. I had just pushed the button to go up to my room when a large, brightly colored, two dimensional, rat wearing a large red beret slipped in through the closing lift doors. In the absence of any recent knocks to the head, so I was forced to accept the fact that there actually was an over‐
grown and very flat rat stand‐
ing in the lift car with me. Buster gave me a twisted little smile, something he does rather well, by the way, and proceeded to explain to me his reason for seeking me out. that he had picked me because he found the presence of glasses on my face to give me a studious appearance and he therefore judged me to be “up to the task”. At first I told him that while I was flattered by his choosing me for the job, I didn’t really feel like I’d have time during the tour to adequately cover his story considering that I’d have to make handwritten notes, something I abhor doing, and type the final document after arriving home and re‐
gaining access to a computer. I again expressed my con‐
cern over taking the time out during the tour to allow for his dictation to me and he assured me that we could fit a few moments in at the end of each day either in the bar or elsewhere in the hotel. By this time we had departed the lift car onto our floor and walked down the hall to the door of the room in which he was staying. He asked me to consider his proposal over‐
night and advised me that he would discuss it with me again the following day. Then, with another twisted smile and a wink he slipped under the door. I continued on to my room as I gave more thought to his request. He was right to as‐
sume that I enjoyed writing an occasional story and I did find the idea of recording the Buster the rat, no official last journey of a rat in Paris rather name, had decided to write intriguing. As I fell asleep that his own account of his trip to Buster The Rat and a certain Welsh actor on a road trip of night, I realized the decision France and being unable to France. (Hint: Buster is on the right. <grin>)
had been made. I would write properly type, a common Buster’s story. I hoped I problem among his kind, re‐
wouldn’t have to do too much editing. quired someone to compile and edit his story. He explained 22
My concerns over editing were cast aside the following evening when I met with Buster for our first session. I found this rat to be intelligent and articulate and not just a little bit charming. Of course, the fact that his charm was only accentuated all the more by a good glass of milk or two became apparent as the late evening meeting wore on. I continued to meet with Buster throughout the tour, usu‐
ally in clandestine late night meetings in the hotel bar, even several times after the bar had closed. Buster is very adept at sneaking into places and was able to teach me a bit of his skill at stealth, a talent that will surely carry me far in future. And so, I have recorded Buster’s story in his own words and I now submit it for your review. Please keep in mind that I have not changed or edited Buster’s own words at any point except for the occasional spelling correction. Also, be aware that Buster requests that this story be kept confidential, having some concerns that his position at the Be K.I.N.D Foundation may be com‐
promised. On to the story……… Part Two– A Rat’s Tour of France So, I found myself traveling with my human, Mary Anne, on a very unusual tour of Paris and several other areas of France. What an opportunity! Many rats never get to travel so extensively. My poor brother, for instance, spends most of his time running about a very large white house located somewhere near Baltimore, Maryland in the USA, trying to help his human make some very important decisions. I’m sure glad I didn’t get that job! Anyway, Let us proceed to the story of my very exciting trip touring France. Unfortunately, due to social conventions currently in place, I was forced to travel to France in Mary Anne’s suit‐
case. I pray that human enlightenment will very soon allow a fine upstand‐
ing young rat like me to travel first class instead of in the baggage compart‐
ment, but my fellow rats tell me that is just wishful thinking and I should get over it. We’ll never acquire the esteem among humans that have been afforded to our not so distant cousins, thanks to that damned goofy old mouse, Mickey. What we need is a rat to shine in the media. Hey, maybe that could be me some day! By Buster the “Be Kind” Rat (as dictated to Dar) So, my first view of the beautiful country of France was from the inside of a hotel room where I was Hi, my name is Buster and I’m a rat, a lifted out of my safe little very lucky rat as it turns out. You see I nest in my human’s suit‐
Buster parties on with the tour group! recently attended a very interesting case and deposited into a tour of France. blue tote bag. Luckily said Let me start at the beginning. I come from a long line of tote bag was not quite large enough to fit my entire body, rats who work to help human kind. Rats from my family considering that I’m actually a bit larger than the average have been personal advisors and traveling companions to rat, so I was afforded a quite nice view as I was carried many of human kind’s most positively influential people about. throughout history. Of course, modesty prohibits me from dropping names here. Just suffice it to say that I was des‐
tined to be a positive role model and I, being the modest and humble rat that I am, would never think to shirk my duty. The early attendees of the tour began congregating in the hotel bar on Friday afternoon. My human inadvertently left me in her room, a problem for which I, of course, had a solution. Luckily, I am a rather flat rat and therefore find it quite easy to slip under doors and through closed door‐
23
working on a doctoral thesis using this very subject. She is trying to develop a correlation between an excess of food consumption during human social events with obesity in the rat population of several large cities throughout the world. Her theory is that the recent trend toward personifi‐
cation of the average domestic rat has caused an increase in traditionally human disorders such as obesity and depres‐
sion in the modern city dwelling rat population, a rather heavy topic if you ask me. Okay, back to my story. Sorry to trail off like that. My friends tell me I can be a rather long‐winded rat at times. I got to know my traveling mates fairly quickly as I was handed about from one to the other for the inevitable pic‐
ture taking sessions. Mary Anne is going to compile the pictures in a book depicting my journey. That first day we departed the Bleu Marine hotel in a bus driven by a very cool French guy named Freddie. Our guide was Huguette, a very nice woman who had no clue what she’d gotten herself into. She didn’t know what High‐
lander was, but she was playing hostess to a group of hu‐
mans who would rather take pictures of tunnels and man‐
hole covers than the famous Notre Dame of Paris. Meeting place of the Four Horsemen… and a Rat! ways that others would have difficulty with. And so, I was able to follow along to the bar and then out for a meal, walking behind Mary Anne and her new friends. It’s a simple trick really that I use to keep them from notic‐
ing me. It takes constant vigilance, but at any moment if one of the humans I’m following happens to glance in my direction, I simply turn myself sideways. As I said, I’m a rather flat chap. I slid behind the seats and observed during that first din‐
ner or maybe it was lunch. I find it difficult to differentiate between human meals. To us rats, food is food. We don’t use any particular names to differentiate one food con‐
sumption period from another. We are a simple species in that way. We eat when we are hungry and food is available completely without regard to the time of day or night. It has been my observation that humans more often choose to eat for reasons having nothing to do with hunger and availability of food. In fact, my own sister is currently 24
We journeyed to Etretat, the location of the small church used in the episode Deliverance, one of my favorites. Yes, rats do watch television. Get over it. This was the church to which Methos took the evil Duncan after he’d been shot to death. I would have liked to walk up all the steps to the church on top of the cliff but my human, Mary Anne was walking with a cane so we got a ride up in a taxi. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside the church to see if the interior really was filmed there, but my little group spread about the outside, closely examining the church from all angles determinedly matching every blade of grass to the scenes they had memorized from the epi‐
sode. What else can I say? Highlander fans are a very dedicated group. Later that evening, we watched the episode in question with Huguette in attendance, hoping that perhaps she might recognize some other locations and voila, she did. (I picked up some French during my visit. Impressed?) “Honfleur!” she called out. So, the next morning, we trekked off to Honfleur and there it was: the doorway and stairs that evil Duncan stumbled out of after being shot by the ship Captain. And it appeared that Methos must have picked him up in his car and then driven straight off into the water as there certainly wasn’t a road leading off in that direction. Honfleur was a beautiful little seaside town. Later in the day my tour mates were all instructed to meet in front of a little church. It turned out that Freddie, “I am zee best!” our wonderful bus driver, had revealed his knowledge of the loca‐
tion of the alley where the door to the imaginary butcher shop was filmed. Eve‐
ryone sauntered down the alley and ex‐
amined it extensively for camera angles. A few pictures were taken. On Monday, we hopped onto a train to Bordeaux where we stayed overnight and explored until Tuesday afternoon. I wouldn’t have been giving out any Buster bucks (rewards for positive behav‐
ior) to the humans that day! They decided to stop for lunch at a quaint little riverside café and they all hopped off and left poor Susan asleep on the bus. Buster fills in while the concierge takes a break! Lucky for them, Susan is apparently a forgiving sort. I wouldn’t have been so easy on them and I expressed as much that evening to my writer, Dar. I made her buy me an extra glass of milk to make up for it. Of course, I don’t know how buying me a drink, made up for an offense against Susan, but Dar seemed willing and who was I to argue? We saw locations where Revelations 6:8 was filmed. There was the fountain where Duncan defused the virus bomb, the Hotel de Seze where Duncan and Cassandra stayed while they were in town, and of course, the subma‐
rine base. I slipped out of my tote bag and followed along as several people went into the hotel and took pictures of the front desk where Duncan checked in. It looked smaller than I remembered it from the episode, but hey, I’ve seen my share of television and it’s all in the camera angles. The submarine base, now that could be a non‐fan rats heaven. In fact, I thought I might have glimpsed a few of my distant relatives skittering by while I was there. To me, however, it was a dream come true. I got to go up the steps and see the chair that Methos sat on and the table used in the episode. Everything was a little dusty but that just added to its charm. The humans in my group swarmed about the area taking pictures. It kind of reminded me of my last holiday visit home. Taking in the sea air with a dear traveling companion. On Wednesday, we all hopped on a different bus, alas, having said goodbye to Freddie, and we went to Chantilly. There were group shots taken on the steps where Duncan and Richie sat to drink the bottle of cognac in Prodigal Son. Then we saw the ring in the horse museum which 25
was used in the Immortal Cimoli episode. Outside, we could see the stands where Duncan took the quickening in the Vampire episode. A lot happened at this location. No wonder people visit it from all over the world. We lost one of our humans that day, but everyone said Chris was totally self‐sufficient so there was no need to worry and in fact, they were right. She was already back at the hotel waiting for us when we returned. She had simply hopped on the metro as any self respecting rat would have done. Of course, the Paris metro system is very human friendly, so I wasn’t really surprised. The next day our little group descended upon Provins, where Amanda suffered her first death and was taken in by Rebecca. We took a little tram ride there and almost lost Hu‐
guette when she jumped tram to do a bit of shopping while all the tour humans were taking pictures. walked by saying, “Hello, ladies.” I forgave him for this indiscretion the next day when he agreed to be photographed with me. Having my picture taken with my favorite actor, I was in rat heaven that day for sure! On Friday, we went to the Rothschild Mansion in Ferri‐
eres. This was the location for a number of scenes in differ‐
ent episodes, most notably the great scene at the glass doors in Finale Part Two in which Joe and Vemus come to fists, the scene in Methos where Kalas sings opera, and the outside scene in Forgive Us Our Trespasses, which was purported to be at the Luxem‐
bourg gardens but was actu‐
ally here, where Methos stepped out from behind the bushes trying to talk Duncan out of meeting Steven Keane and when that failed, shot him in the back. What a wonderful moment, which our friend, Peter Wingfield graciously re‐
enacted for us. What a guy! That evening, most of the More silly picture taking oc‐
group gathered in the hotel curred at the gate as this was bar while Susan got the apparently the location for the other humans fingerprints opening scene of Indiscretions on her traditional pottery in which Methos avoids a pig. I was there, being challenge from Morgan passed back and forth Walker. among the humans, which was fine with me as it af‐
Of course, our wonderful Pe‐
forded me the opportunity ter re‐enacted his famous to taste everyone’s drinks. I walk. don’t really understand the significance of the pig, but Then, we scurried on to the humans seemed to be Chaalis in the afternoon to see Hey, watch the ears, fella! They’re delicate! having a lot of fun with it and the location where Rebecca gave I’m all for amusement. A up her life to save her mortal husband, a stupid move if happy human is a kind human, I always say. you ask me, but a very romantic gesture nevertheless. The humans swarmed like ants about the abbey ruins. I, of Then, he walked in. I’d forgotten he was supposed to at‐
tend and I hadn’t noticed the absence of the Australians in course, remained my calm, collected self while in the pres‐
ence of Peter who wanted to be photographed with me at our group until they walked in escorting Peter Wingfield. the Abbey gates. And, as any self respecting Highlander fan knows, he por‐
Saturday we explored Paris, the Highlander sites of trayed one of our most favorite characters, Methos, the course. The highlight of this day was the visit to Methos’ five‐thousand year old immortal. tunnel. I even got my picture taken with Peter there. What I guess he didn’t notice me among the group cause he a wonderful day! There were the steps that Methos and 26
Duncan walked down on their way back to the barge at the end of Deliverance, down which Peter cooperatively walked while feigning his side of the conversation from the episode. And another great re‐enactment of the scene from the episode Methos in the tunnel when Methos at‐
tacks Duncan in an attempt to get him to take his head, or maybe it was a test. We may never know for sure, as Methos him‐
self doesn’t seem too sure. Then we hustled over to the Shake‐
speare and C o m p a n y b o o k s t o r e , which was‐
n’t open yet. That turned out to be a good thing since it was easier for everyone to get good photos of Peter standing by the door without other people walking by. Everyone had a warm drink at one of the cafés nearby as it was a really cold day. Then they took off on foot to St. Julien’s, otherwise known as Darius’ church. The grand finale for the afternoon was a rainy visit to the Eiffel Tower. I can tell you my beret was limply hanging down the side of my face at the end of that experience. I think there were a million Irishmen there, playing soccer under the tower in the pouring down rain. And that was before they’d hit the pubs. You wouldn’t find the average rat playing soccer in the rain, baseball, maybe, but not soc‐
cer. That evening, the humans in our group went on a dinner cruise on the Seine. Peter seemed to take a real liking to me as once again, he insisted on a photo opportunity with me. Maybe he wants to use it in his Portfolio for upcoming roles??? Carmel, our wonderful group leader and her min‐
ions, Nancye and Aine, made sure that everyone got a turn to be seated near our guest. Dar got to sit directly across from him for the end of the meal and she told me that she was quite pleased with the view and of course, the conversation. She didn’t say much, as she seems to be kind of the quiet type, but she definitely enjoyed herself. I could tell as much when she described the evening to me that night. The fact that she couldn’t remember what she’d eaten also gave me a clue. I could sense the sadness of the humans as the tour came to an end. We rats are sensitive that way, you know. It had been a great ride, but the train was slowing down to pre‐
pare for the end of the track. A few of the humans were sticking around for a few extra days of non tour exploring. I even heard that some of them were going to go see Notre Dame and The Louvre, even though they weren’t High‐
lander venues. Maybe Huguette had as much of a positive effect on them as they did on her. I wonder if she’s pur‐
chased the complete set of Highlander on DVD yet. Anyway, as I said I’m a very lucky rat. My association with the Highlander fans has been a very positive experi‐
ence. I had a really great time as I believe can be said for all who attended the amazing Highlander World Wide Tour of France. Now, how am I going to convince Mary Anne that we need to go to Sydney next year? *~*~*~*~* A Snippet of Memory
by Susan White
W
e were trudging through one of the many arcades that surround Place des Vosges where weʹd had a photo opportunity with Peter, returning to the bus after failing to find a place to eat. Though the arcade was full of shops and cafes, it was the height of lunch hour on Saturday afternoon, and no one place had seating available for the size of our crowd. Peter was striding purposefully, black Immortal overcoat flapping, following Carmel, most of us clustered around him, the rest of us trailing in his wake. The word ʹlemmingʹ popped into my mind first. Then the words, ʹPied Piper.ʹ Finally I recognized the scene. Off his left flank, I spoke up from the cluster. ʺHey,ʺ I said. ʺWeʹre doing the ʹpower shotʹ from Angel. ʺPeter corrected me gently, quipping over his shoulder, ʺMethos and the 19 Horsemen. ʺOops. Silly me ‐‐ wrong fandom. *~*~*~* 27
a dinner to remember
By Nancye Elliott
E
ach person on the tour was to have an item signed for them by Peter. We (Carmel, Aine, John and I) gave him the booklets and bags. In his usual charming way he thanked us, checked that all was clear then asked, “What are you guys doing tonight?” “Umm, nothing any more,” I thought. Carmel with her usually quick wit immediately cancelled our plans to attend a concert we were thinking of attending at St Julian’s and replied: “Nothing…” So with that we found ourselves having a quiet farewell dinner with Peter in Paris. Peter met us in the lobby – dark trousers, original Methos jumper and coat and a huge grin! Oh my! Two taxis were required and as one after another whizzed past, Peter took things into his own hands. One deafening whistle later two taxis screeched to a halt. Stunned! “Well I guess that clears the si‐
nuses for everyone within a two mile radius,” quipped Carmel. Who would have thought Peter could whistle that loudly? Who would have thought anyone could? On to Shakespeare and Co. where we rendezvoused and spent some minutes laughing about our respective taxi rides from Montparnasse to the Seine. Where to go? There was the usual Left Bank array of res taurant choices but Peter wanted to revisit the Right Bank. “Letʹs walk. Over the river okay?” he inquired. And with that Peter and Carmel both strode out in their respective 28
long black coats – across the Seine and past Notre Dame “Not relevant!” Peter teased, “after all, it wasn’t in High‐
lander!” Carmel tried to once again convince everyone that she was Notre Dame’s foremost fan and her statement to our tour guide on the irrelevance of one of the greatest Ca‐
thedrals on the planet had been outrageously taken out of context. Peter replied with something suspiciously like “Blah blah blah…” and we continued on past the Hotel Dieu and the many beautiful buildings on the Right Bank. So we walked – and talked – and tried to keep up with Peter’s long loping strides… Was I the only one thinking how incredibly surreal this whole situation was? Striding past Notre Dame in the tailwind of Peter and his Methos coat as it billowed out behind him, anchored only by his hands firmly in his pockets. I know that I wasn’t the only one thinking that Methos had returned to Paris, as passers by stopped and stared, shaking their heads as if to clear them of what surely must have been considered to be a mirage…. chine I would have had them certified! But there you go. Surreal… Finally we came to an area Peter obviously recognised I decided a few years ago that when it came to Carmel where Peter picked out a place that was one of those quin‐
tessential Parisian restaurants. We chose a table outside and Highlander anything was possible and I would never and settled down for a well‐earned dinner. The tour had say never again. ☺ gone incredibly well but was now over. So there we were strolling through the Metro tunnels on A seeming shortage of menus saw Peter and I sharing one our way to catch the train. We stood on the platform chat‐
‐ sometimes life is really tough J Peter asked if we were all ting; we stood on the train chatting and chatted on our okay with it being in French. “Oui,” assured Carmel. “No way back to the hotel. That is until we were standing on an worries…” Yep, we could manage. So he and I contem‐
incredibly long people mover and a young man ap‐
plated the menu, ummed and ahhed and discussed what proached Peter, pointed at him and said in a heavy French various items might be and made our choices. accent, “Highlander???” Much food, wine and champagne was consumed amidst Peter was his usual, very gracious self and spoke at length much laughter and wide‐ranging conversation. with the young man and his friends. To this day I smile at what must have been an extraordinary experience for At one stage we these fans. We had began talking agreed, without it ever about Duncan being said, that the and Methos and night would be picture decided that free – just a relaxing Duncan was a time for all of us and dog and Methos with Peter not having to a cat. Well I pose for posterity. But have to tell you Carmel said that she that Peter does had to get a picture of “cat” incredibly Peter on the Metro talk‐
well and had us ing to the fans since it all laughing fit was such a unique ex‐
Peter’s Metro Ticket to bust with his antics. Then perience. You never know – Peter mused that dogs just wanted to be loved and cats that fan might see the picture one day! basically didn’t care. He said if you threw a stick then the dog would chase after it and bring it back, wanting to Finally we found our way up, up and up some more please. He then did another one of his cat things and mim‐
through the station complex until we came to the street icked the cat “If you wanted the stick, why did you throw and finally our hotel. As we walked into the lobby there it away?” I had tears in my eyes from laughing. was most of our group, which was wonderful, since they all got to say a further goodbye and thank you to Peter. All good things have to come to an end, or so I thought, until we started walking back towards the Left Bank. Car‐
Somehow, dining since that night just seems to be missing mel suggested that the quickest and easiest way was to something...they say everything is relative and I guess it’s hop on the Metro, and all agreed, having experienced what just going to continue to be hard to beat that entire experi‐
it is like trying to flag down a Parisian taxi at that time of ence – from the whistled up taxi to the al fresco meal with night. Peter amidst centuries old surrounds in one of the most romantic cities in the world to the train trip back to the We found a ticket machine and the search for coins com‐
hotel…somehow the local pub just doesn’t seem to com‐
menced. Well if anyone had ever told me I would be pare. standing side by side with Peter Wingfield in the Paris Metro while we all shoved our hands in our pockets trying Maybe I’m just too choosy these days…sigh… to come up with the correct change for the vending ma‐
It really was wonderfully bizarre. 29
Shelley's excellent adventure
By Shelley Schermer
1 Oct– London/Paris N
otes to self: Reserving a time for a cab to Waterloo Station is highway robbery and arriving on the Eurostar in Paris at night means a very long wait for a taxi and requires 15 euro to get to Montparnasse. Located on a traffic circle rounding a modern flat‐sheet stone fountain, the Blue Marine Hotel is new, high tech and tastefully decorated in grey, black, silver and Chinese red. It has the feel of being a giant computer. There are moni‐
tors next to the elevators in the lobby flashing weather and other tourist‐related info and you have to insert your key‐
card in a slot inside your door to turn on the lights and heat. Unfortunately there arenʹt enough human employees to always provide the service the surroundings imply. After settling in my room I de‐
cided to check out the bar in case I recognized any‐
one from HLWW. I found Carmel, Aine, Nancy (and a few others, who, my feeble brain hasn’t retained) there. I introduced myself and sat down while they finished their drinks. used in Highlander. We dutifully headed out to our bus where our driver, Freddie, loaded our bags and our guide Huguette intro‐
duced herself as we all got settled into seats. Huguette launched into her well‐honed tour spiel as we headed out of town through the beautiful countryside to our prear‐
ranged destination of Etretat on the English Channel in Normandy. We heard much about the landscape, industry and the Seine, which we essentially followed and finally crossed, by way of an impressive and beautifully designed bridge, all the way to the coast. The process pf group bond‐
ing began to the music Carmel had brought for us and thoughtfully provided the lyrics to. It was Infectious. You couldn’t help but smile and laugh and sing along with the national anthems, “We Are the Champions’ and “Bonny Portmoreʺ. Then the trouble be‐
gan… As we approached the picturesque medieval town of Etretat, Carmel and Huguette found that they had two very differ‐
ent churches in mind. There are two churches. There is the beautiful ancient one in town and the “new” (post WWII) one on the cliff overlook‐
ing the town and shore. The coast at Etretat, a view from “the” church Huguette was incredulous that we had traveled so far to see the historically insignificant one. So began the educa‐
tion of Huguette. 2 Oct– Paris/Etretat/Le Havre/Normandy Arriving in the lobby to check out and check one of my bags overnight I was confronted with the task of trying to learn the names and faces of fifteen others, a task I am not well suited for. That, and the panic reaction I have to trying to communicate in French, made for immediate anxiety. I received a spiffy blue cloth bag (with the very clever tour logo, designed by John Mosby printed on it) which con‐
tained a tour t‐shirt, nametag and binders of travel songs and information on our destinations and how they were 30
Etretat enfolded us in its history. Walking through the winding narrow streets bordered by beautiful old buildings to the beach of time‐rounded gravel was a perfect way to start our search for Highlander’s French heritage. For the most part, we all are bound to the series by a love of his‐
tory. Most of us, in this newly‐formed grouping, are from countries with shallow architectural roots, so our surround‐
ings truly evoked the feel of the past we had come for. The Highlander pub near the shore was the icing on the prover‐
bial cake! After determining who would be climbing the formidable stairway cut into the cliff face to the small stone church and who would need to be taxied up, we were given a time and location to meet and then released to find lunch. I ended up following Martha, one of the few French (shades of things to come) we motored off to Le Havre. We wound through the outskirts of the city, and were suitably impressed by the vistas presented, while we learned that it has always been an important port and how the whole center of the city had to be rebuilt after it was destroyed in WWII. We caused an unfortunate traffic situation when Freddie attempted to resolve a toilet issue for one of us and finally arrived at our hotel in the center of town. Check‐in appeared to be a bit frustrating for Carmel, Huguette and the desk. The rooms were pleasant enough and I was greeted by the sound of my neighbor testing the acoustics of her bathroom by singing an aria. She stopped when I flushed. Heading to dinner, I emerged from the elevator in the middle of a wed‐
ding photo session. Disconcerting, Being seated at a table with, as I recall, Susan, Judes, Becky, Sharon and Freddie, I at‐
tempted to make small talk to get to know my tablemates. We were not the most gregarious bunch. Fortunately Sharon managed to keep Freddie com‐
pany, being the only one at the table who spoke French. The gals take a break from the bus! speakers in the group, to help me order food at an outdoor crepe/sandwich shop where I was introduced to Croquet Monsieur. We sat on a bench while Martha related her teenage memories of France. Judes and I eventually retired to the lounge for coffee and what became the first of our nightly Cointreaux while we got to know each other better. At the appointed time, the brave souls willing to work off their lunch by ascending the heights on our own power set off. I ended up sharing the climb with Judes where we spent a pleasant time slowly and steadily scaling the hill and getting to know each other. It was also the beginning of my forming an opinion that there are no good bartenders in France. We sat for ages and would have had more drinks if he had bothered to come back. We gave up when they started setting up the tables for breakfast around us. It turned out to be time very well spent. The view was magnificent, the (unfortunately closed) church, interesting, and the attempt at finding the angles shot in the scenes amusing. I collected a piece of flint and a couple of flowers to press. 3 Oct– Le Havre/Honfleur/Paris After retracing our steps and boarding the bus we were ferried to the historic church where Huguette was finally able to impress more actual French history on us. We were suitably impressed and took pictures. I was particularly interested in the ceramic flower arrangements on some of the graves in the churchyard. For some reason, that escaped me, the hotel was deco‐
rated with a coffee theme. Being a port town, perhaps it was known as an entry point for it? Anyway, coffee was foremost in my mind when I man‐
aged to get down to breakfast without much time to spare. I sat at an empty table and Carmel graciously moved over to keep me company. Oh, dear more croissants! Pity I couldn’t find any oatmeal so I just had to force down the disgusting thing... After a bit of a struggle herding us back onto the bus 31
There we were, 20 p e o p l e brought from around t h e world because of a TV show! painters and photog‐
raphers today. A p p a r e n t l y while Judes and I were getting to know each other the night before, everyone else watched High‐
lander DVDs and Huguette and Freddie recognized the Honfleur, home of the EDM house locations that Carmel had assumed were in Le Havre to be in a town nearby called Honfleur. As the bus ap‐
proached the parking area along the canal that connected Hon‐
fleur to the sea we were greeted by the sight of a large group of people dressed in traditional costumes milling about the sightseeing boats tied there. Huguette ex‐
claimed how lucky we were to see them. Be‐
fore we could exit the Huguette, a native of Normandy, was unsurpris‐
edly proud to show it off. The impressionists, enamored of its light, had tried to capture its beauty. From its vast shoreline an abundance of seafood is presented in mounds festooned with seaweed in the many sidewalk restaurants. Ap‐
ples, both to be eaten or drunk as Calvados, fig‐
ure prominently in Norman culture, as does cheese from the many cows in the fields we passed. The raising of horses is also important here. I would not be averse to spending more time exploring Normandy in the future. A marathon was being run that day in La Havre and we glimpsed the many participants for sev‐
eral miles long our way out of town, even on the Normandy Bridge as we crossed it. (Huguette impressed upon us the significance of the bridge. Ahem! Built from 1988 to 1995, with an 856 meter central span and conceived to withstand 300km/h wind gusts, the Normandy Bridge holds the European record in its class.) Honfleur, situated off of the tidal Estuary of the Seine, is both a sea and river port. It has preserved its rich artistic and historic heritage, particularly the Old Dock area at the heart of the city, with the very typical high houses all around it. Artwork is everywhere in shops and museums. Honfleur’s architecture, countryside and changing light attracted many famous impressionists (including Claude Monet and Eugène Boudin) in the past and still attracts 32
bus the group strolled past us and then several of the women broke into a run for the public restroom nearby. Relieved, they all regrouped before us before we made our way to the center of town and striking up their non‐
traditional boom box, performed a dance for us. After ex‐
pressing our appreciation of their performance, we all headed for the Old Dock. There they stopped again to de‐
light all the tourists milling about watching and bargaining with the artists at their easels capturing the many pictur‐
esque buildings surrounding them. And...there it was! Across the compact harbor, basking in the morning sun under a bright blue sky, was the beautiful stone house where Methos picked up Evil Duncan! We left the dancers snapped way too many pix of interesting architectural details before we went to the assigned post‐lunch meeting spot. A great deal of ice cream was being consumed while a stray dog worked the crowd. I think Martha wanted to take him home. Carmel Nancye and Aine had spent a prof‐
itable lunch hour tracking down the loca‐
tion of the “butcher shop” which we all then wandered over to and duly photo‐
graphed. It turned out to be in a tiny alley that Judes and I had already documented, being really striking in itself. Honfleur to their new audience. Note to self: carry toilet paper in France. Before we all got back on the bus it was wise to visit the facility our dancing friends had made use of. I had been tempted at the Belfry but thought better of trying to deal with a hole in the floor. (Judes said my face was quite entertain‐
ing.) So began the tour of seatless, paperless French public toilets. Much film was exposed with most of us posing in the graceful entry stair. In real life, it is the Lieutenance, for‐
merly House of the Kingʹs Lieutenant and used to be part of the ramparts surrounding the city. A plaque on the side of the building declared that here was where Champlain had set out for the New World. We all settled ourselves back on the bus to leave. A head‐
count was performed. No Sharon or Martha. Carman, Nancye and Aine strode purposefully off and eventually returned with the lost sheep. Huguette eventually managed to herd us to the Sainte‐
Catherine church a couple of streets over. It has no High‐
lander significance, but should not to be missed despite that! Still very much in use, the incense from the recent service still hung in the air. It was Sunday. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, it’s the largest wooden church in France, has a unique double alter and separate belfry, which currently contains a public toilet, religious museum, annex of Boudin museum (!). Before leaving Normandy behind Huguette had Freddy drive us to nearby quaint Trouville and its neighboring upscale vacation haven of Deauville. We were duly im‐
pressed by the racecourse, elegant shops, hotels and the beach bordered by a striking convention center, assort‐
ment of restaurants and facilities and horses! Despite most of the vacation condos being shuttered for the winter there were still a lot of people enjoying themselves at off season prices. Lunchtime! Judes and set off down the narrow paved streets and off past all the outdoor restaurants in search of a shop with disposable cameras (I would eventually have twenty‐four to carry home from my three weeks in Scot‐
land, England and France!) and food. Following the na‐
tives proved fruitful and we had a fine walking lunch in‐
cluding dessert, of course. (If you keep moving the calories don’t stick, you know.) Au revoir, Normandy! Bonjour, Paris! When we got back to the dock the sidewalk cafes were full. I wanted to take pictures of the incredible seafood presen‐
tations but figured it would be rude. After stopping back at a shop where I had fallen for a coral ring (which was mercifully closed for lunch), we set off exploring and I 4 Oct– Paris/Bordeaux At checkout in the morning most of us checked a bag so we didn’t have to carry more than was necessary on the train for the overnight in Bordeaux. There was a bit of con‐
fusion about who should have the numbered receipts but we were assured that the hotel would have our bags in our new rooms when we returned on Tuesday. Simple. We trundled down the street, around the corner and past 33
a battalion of mo‐
torcycles parked and secured out‐
side of the en‐
trance to the un‐
inviting modern train station. There we were joined by Bea‐
trice’s friend Sha‐
ran Ne wman from Oregon. An author of historic novels, Sharan was to join us for part of our High‐
lander journey between interviews for her recent publication and doing research for her next. Bordeaux, home of Revelations 6:8. Back on the bus, we were driven to the large park, the Esplanade de s Q ui nco nce s, where the fountain, the Girondins and Republic Monument (a monument to the revolution), in is lo‐
cated. The guide’s explanation of the symbols portrayed by the figures in the fountain was punctu‐
ated by snapping and The fountain in Bordeaux flashing on our part. I’m not sure he really understood that our interest was not purely historic. A colorful carnival occupied the large paved area next to the fountain. By leaving my glasses off and staying a comfortable dis‐
On the way to the fountain we spotted our other site, the tance from a booth selling scarves I managed to avoid add‐
Hotel de Seze, (where Duncan and Cassandra “stayed”) ing to my burden before we were ushered into our re‐
served seats on the bullet train and shot through the French only a couple of blocks away. As soon as it seemed polite we all rushed away from the fountain and to the hotel to countryside for warmer climes. (Sorry, couldn’t help my‐
self.) fill more rolls of film before dispersing to forage for lunch and occupy ourselves until we were to meet for dinner at I knew Bordeaux would be warmer but was surprised at the hotel. just how much. Stripping was in order as soon as I got in the bus. The gentleman serving as tour guide rapidly ran through his commentary about the history of the city as we dutifully tried to take at least some of it in during the short ride to the startlingly 50’s/60’s contemporary design hotel, Hotel Mercure Bordeaux Centre Meriadeck, with a design scheme I would have to call Hollywood Jumble Sale. There were antique film projectors in the lobby, the meeting and public rooms had cute film reference names and each hotel room had a photo from a classic film on it! (I’m not sure if it is a problem of all French tour guide, but, they all seem obliged to apologize for any buildings built after WWII. Huguette was particularly of‐
fended by the large 60’s black tower lo‐
The Hotel de Seze, Bordeaux cated a couple of blocks from our hotel in Montparnasse. I must admit in this hotel’s case the place The center of the city, a stunning assemblage of 16th‐18th was definitely hanging way over the edge of tasteless century architecture, is a car‐free zone with a very sleek kitsch.) modern trolley system. Judes and I set off to explore the 34
shops and eventually settled in for a relax‐
ing lunch at a sidewalk cafe. Continuing our wanderings we found ourselves in a square where the church Saint Andre and its adjacent tower were located. Hesitating only momentarily, we decided to go in. Huguette would be proud! Begun in the 11th century, the building is a symphony of different peri‐
ods of architecture, Romanesque through Rococo, and has a large clock located in‐
congruously inside. It is a church of pil‐
grimage and Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine were married there. A display in a side room described their ongoing renovation (in French, of course) which I was sorry not to be able to understand better. For Sale: One slightly used submarine base. Previous owner thought he was the end of time. He was wrong. Though tempted, we managed to eventually return to the hotel without making any purchases. We returned to a bit of a kerfuffle because Chris, Judes’ room‐
mate, didn’t have a key to their room and had been trying to find it! I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the modern shopping center a block from the hotel, spend being the motivation. It was huge and busy, especially the grocery store, and I proceeded to check out the fashions and invested in several unexcit‐
ing knit cotton shirts. I tried to acquire something more interesting, but, despite a great deal of gesturing on both our parts in a lovely boutique, came up empty. the fountain so Aine and Nancye could capture more shots that they had missed and the Hotel de Seze, This time Car‐
mel had arranged for us to go in and take shots of the desk and lobby stair that had been used in a scene. Heading out of the city, we drove past the beautiful stone Pont de Pierre bridge (commissioned by Napoleon), and stopped for a view of the submarine base before we wound our way through the countryside in pursuit of the Dinner was in a private room and ended as a celebration of Martha’s birthday. We then took over the bar to watch Revela‐
tions 6:8 on the TV there (but ended up having to view it on Carmel’s ever‐
present laptop) before retiring to our rooms. 5 Oct– Bordeaux/Paris After a pleasant time getting to know Susan over the first (and only, as it turned out) good breakfast on the tour we set off. With new guide we packed our‐
selves into yet another bus and returned to The Four HorseWomen of the Apocalypse? What will they do? Shop you to death? <grin> 35
bridge where Duncan fought Caspian and Silas and the church and graveyard where he met Methos. It had been deducted by the guide that there were actually two bridges used, one for distance shots and the other for the close action. Both, it turned out, had been designed by Monsieur Eiffel, of the infamous tower, which made sense from the look of them. The church that Carmel had thought was what we were looking for turned out not to be. Our guide (more inclined to be a bit of a disciplinarian than our Huguette), nonethe‐
less entered into the spirit of the chase and she and the driver ferried us through fields of vines heavy with grapes ready to be harvested, checking out countless villages. (I found the wooded areas a bit disconcerting. Almost all of them were planted in neat rows, like the forests in many areas of Scotland.) We eventually stopped in the charming village of Lugan et I’lle du Carney where Carmel was con‐
vinced we had finally found it. While several of us shel‐
tered from the sun on a low stone wall under a magnolia tree Carmel attempted, in vain, to locate someone with a key. Ce la vie! We next stopped at a riverside outdoor restaurant in Li‐
bourne where we had a delicious lunch (the best duck I had this trip) relaxing under green awnings at picnic tables set overlooking the roiling ochre tidal water of the Dordogne River. I can think of many more unpleasant ways to while away an hour. After a sunny stroll to the bus we had a slight delay while our vehicle vied with a few others of varying sizes for the road. Things eventually sorted themselves out and we were on our way back to Bordeaux and the infamous sub base where we had a prearranged appointment. The WWII facility had been converted into a rental space for special events and art exhibits some years before but much of the building was raw and unkempt, including the bay where the quickening fights were staged. We were lucky enough to be escorted by a guy who had worked there that had been around when they shot the show. Warned to be careful so as not to fall into the murky water below the walkway, we made our way through the scarred cement bays, some of which had been cleaned and had fabric covering the walls, to number nine. Birds flew about the cobweb festooned cavernous spaces where the sunlight reflecting off the watery floor from the far opening to each manmade cove never quite relieved the gloom. Ooh, scary... We knew that the space had been a valued find for the episode because an artist had created several metal sculp‐
36
tures there that easily became the setting for Kronos’ lair. What we didn’t expect was that they were still there! I can’t even imagine how much film and card space was spent on this amazing find. We carefully climbed the rusting stair‐
way, one at a time, in small groups, and we all found it hard to leave. I enticed Nancye. Susan and Karen to simu‐
late the Horseman arm grasp over the “table”. (Probably one of the few pictures Nancye is actually IN.) Descending the stairs yet again brought respect for Adrian and the oth‐
ers for having the ability and guts to fight on them. Reluctantly we were dragged back toward the entry where our facility guide escorted us through an exhibit of stone and metal sculpture being set up to open soon, to what seemed to be the bowels of the facility. There, again in small groups he took us into a roughly pillared airless, lightless space with a metal cylinder sitting in the center. This, he explained had been the “lab” set with the mon‐
keys. The cylinder was actually part of the set that the virus had been revealed in and had been left there. Theatrical jetsam. It must have been a truly awful place to shoot, no claustrophobia allowed! No wonder the monkeys screamed a lot. Told we were getting short on time to catch our train back to Paris, we scrambled back on the bus, persuaded the driver to drive in to the access road across from the base to get a few shots of that side, and got stuck in Bordeaux rush hour. There was a bit of anxious clock watching as we slowly made our way to the station with extra added cell phone excitement arranging to get the wheel chair Carmel had left at the hotel to the train station. (They did.) With time to spare for a bathroom break we joined the throng in the station and managed to get to our seats without inci‐
dent. Well, OK, there was one incident. A couple insisted that we had one of their seats and through Beatrice’s lan‐
guage skills it was finally deduced that they had tickets for a different day. Fortunately we had enough seats, nonethe‐
less. I’m sure that Carmel wished that that had been the worst of it for the day, for check in back at the Blue Marine turned out to be interesting, to say the least. After splashing our way through the rain back to the hotel from the station it soon became evident that the bags that had been left and were to be placed in everyone’s room didn’t all make it to their designated spots. Including mine. Including Carmel’s with quite a lot of valuables in it. Mine turned out to be in the store room but Carmel, who’s had been placed in the wrong room and turned up by the next morning, ended up calling us all quite late in the evening in her quest to track it down. You could say that this was the most stressful day of it on the trip. Well, ok, except for Chantilly. 6 Oct– Paris/Chantilly/Paris/Auberge Du Per Louis Note to Blue Marine: Mix too many tour groups trying to catch buses at the same time with not enough staff or clean tableware and you have a disaster. was never divided, retaining its farms, ponds, forest, and magnificent horse stables decorated with statuary (the builder thought that he would return as a horse in his next life!). In artistic value and completeness of its holdings it is virtually without equal in central Europe.” We pulled up to the Chateau entry, exited the bus, paid, and then crowded into the stone entry building to crowd around the laptop and preview what was in store. Ah! Prodigal Son, the one with the fight with Hyde on the stone staircase that ended with lots of lightning and fireworks and Duncan meeting Richie to toast Segur with cognac. More or less on time we re‐
united with Huguette and were greeted by a new driver. Once The Chateau at Chantilly, featured in “Prodigal Son” again heading out into the countryside, During a peaceful drive through fields and forest (Chris on the lookout for fires) Huguette made sure we had at least the basic facts about Chantilly (shon‐tee‐yee). Memory being what it is, according to its web‐
site: “The Chateau of Chantilly is only 20 miles north of Paris, but seems a world away. Often overlooked by tourists, it is truly a grand cha‐
teau with marvelous art collections, grounds and stables fit for a king...Built in 1560 by the architect Jean Bullant, for Anne de Montmor‐
ency, it came into the hands of the Conde fam‐
ily at the end of the 18th century. During the French Revolution, all of its works of art were transferred to the Louvre and it was used as a prison. Its last royal owner, the Duc dʹAumale donated the estate to the Institut de France in 1886. The Musee Conde in the castle is second only to the Lou‐
vre in its wealth of Old Master paintings. Its vast collection of manuscripts include the fifteenth‐century Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Unlike other estates, Chantilly We all made for the graceful stairway t h a t d e s c e n d e d grandly to the formal water garden. They must have added the urns with lit globes for the show, probably to help light the dangerous fight on the stairs at NIGHT, for they were not in evidence. The laptop was again consulted and the backgrounds of various shots identified. Just the right angle for a group shot ala the Duncan/Richie scene was set up and photo‐
37
graphed. Happy, happy Highlander lassies. I was particularly fond of the many stone sculptures of dogs featured around the entry to the Chateau. Crossing the entry courtyard it was noted that the doorway to the left was the one used for the Duncan/Segur farewell scene when he gives Duncan the cognac and tells him to meet him at the steps by the bridge (must be photographed before leaving...) The house, an elegant work of art itself, was a beautiful backdrop for the art, artifacts and antique books it contained. We eventually found ourselves in a jewel box of a chapel decorated in fine wood mar‐
quetry, intricate stone inlay and statuary. Here the scene where Segur comforts Duncan was filmed and everyone vied for the best spots to try and cap‐
ture it. the sun on benches there. Nearby was a racecourse with an outstanding grandstand that Carmel said had been used for one of the eps, which has slipped my sponge brain. (Ed: Was it The Vampire?) We then checked out a church (Huguette’s influence?) while we waited to be directed elsewhere and spent the time getting to know each other better. Still Chrisless, we walked the short distance to Le Musée Vivant du Cheval (The Living Horse Museum) and the Old Stables, “the most beautiful stables in the world” (lucky horses) built in the 18th century, Beautiful indeed. There we After an all too quick pass through the out‐
standing library and the gift shop we walked back to the bus. Now, it had come to be Nancye’s task to count heads before we left every location. This time we were one short and Carmel, Aine and Nancye went back to search while Huguette took us the short distance to the town to find lunch for our‐
selves. Several of us invaded a lovely patisserie and car‐
ried our prizes into a park to enjoy while sitting in saw a wide variety of horseflesh being pam‐
pered, from Friesians (originally bred to carry knights in armor) to Shetland ponies. At the end of the long gallery of paddocks was a circular theatre with a riding ring that Carmel said was used for the circus ring in The Immortal Cimoli and something else I do not recall (again). (Ed: The Lady and the Tiger?) Carmel decided that Chris was self reliant enough to find her way to the train station and back to the hotel but left Aine to try again to find her, and so it was we headed back to the hotel. Le Musée Vivant du Cheval (The Living Horse Museum), used in “The Immor‐
tal Cimoli” 38
I seem to have been the first to run into Chris at the hotel (where I assured her that a great deal of effort had gone into unsuccessfully tracking her down and that Aine had stayed behind to keep looking), as well as Aine (who I let know that Chris was back with us). Dinner was uneventful and included much deserved wine. 7 Oct– Paris/Vaux le Vicomte/Provins/Paris Note to Blue Marine Hotel: If you assign groups times to breakfast so as to relieve congestion, make sure everyone agrees. Martha was unhappy to have to get up earlier and really mad when she had to get in line again! As a bonus, Huguette took us to Vaux le Vicomte on the way to Provins, which had nothing to do with Highlander but has a very interesting and sad story behind it. It was interesting for me because it was part of the plot of a play I had seen at the National Theatre in London the year before called Power. Website: “In 1641 a 26 year‐old parliamentarian, Nicolas Fou‐
quet”...the king’s treasurer...”purchased the estate. Fifteen years later the first stone of a unique masterpiece was laid; it was to be the finest château and garden in France. ron formed the circle around this great patron of literature and the arts Vaux‐le‐Vicomte was, moreover, the setting for one of the finest ʺfêtesʺ or celebrations, of the seven‐
teenth century. It was lavish, refined, and dazzling to be‐
hold, but rich in hidden drama. The King”...deciding Fouquet was skimming more than he deserved from the treasury to afford such luxury...”had asked to visit, to throw Fouquet off the scent; secretly he had decided that Fouquet would die. Overcome with joy at the chance of parading Vaux‐le‐Vicomte before the sover‐
eign whose faithful servant he remained, Fouquet as‐
sumed that he would take over the post of prime minister vacated by Cardinal Mazarin. Two weeks later Fouquet was arrested. He was never to leave prison alive.” Joining the throng of teens on school outing, we hurried through the house and I particularly admired the formal garden with its carefully clipped plantings, water features and stonework. Next stop, Provins, a fortified medieval town used for The Hunters and Legacy. Situated in the territory of the former Counts of Champagne it was significant in the develop‐
ment of organized trading fairs and the wool industry. Beautifully preserved and still occupied, the citizens have managed to instill enough pride of place in their children so that there is no graffiti evident. Tour buses are not allowed in so we were dropped at the tourist information/gift shop building where we again clustered around Carmel and the laptop prior to walking into the town for lunch at an out‐
door cafe in the square. The owner’s cat worked the tables and, of course, was fond of Martha (who is allergic). I had my first Floating Island for dessert. The beautiful town of Provins This achievement was brought about through the collabo‐
ration of three men of genius whom Fouquet had chosen for the task: the architect Le Vau, the painter‐decorator Le Brun and the landscape gardener Le Nôtre. The artistic and cultivated sensibility of their patron was a great stimu‐
lus to their talents. They were not alone; the poet La Fontaine, Molière, play‐
wright and actor, Madame de Sévigné, Pellisson and Scar‐
On the way to lunch we had passed the building inside of which was the site of the Fitz torture/ beheading. Backtracking we entered the now open La Grange aux Dîme (The Tithe Barn), to wit: ”During the Fairs of Champagne, the edifice was used as a covered market. Merchants from Toulouse are known to have rented it in 1223 for example. The lower room was used to store goods, whereas the lower and upper floor were (sic) inhabited. In the entrance room, the cross‐ribbed vaulting rests on capitals adorned with foliage. At the ba‐
sis of the vaults, we can notice deep grooves which used to 39
support wooden cross‐
pieces embellished with cloth and which were meant to divide up the space.” We lit up both floors with our flashes and research on the laptop was needed to locate which columns Fitz had been chained to and where the guillotine had been placed. Group shot on the stair Duncan had used! 8 Oct – Paris/Ferrieres/Chaalis Chris had been warned not to share her spider and rat–
infested German hostel story with Peter. It was PW‐day. (Sorry, John, we were glad to see you, too.) Carmel, not surprisingly, changed the protocol. Nancye was relieved of the responsibil‐
ity of counting heads and now required us to respond to as she called out our names from a check list before the bus pulled away from the hotel and headed to another favorite location site for Highlander, Le Château de Ferrières. We had to hurry back to the square to meet the tour trolley Huguette had ar‐
ranged for a ride around the town. After several min‐
utes wasted convincing the driver that we didn’t re‐
quire the prerecorded tour Ferrières was built in the 19th spiel that he was having century in the Italian Renais‐
trouble cueing, we set off, sance style by Baron James de past buildings viewed in Rothschild, Currently owned by the Hunter chase scenes the Sorbonne, the manor and (click), passing below Tour surrounding park was used for César (Caesar’s Tower) several eps including Methos, where Rebecca “lived” in Duncan might have had trouble getting down the stairs in Finale Part II, Judgement Day Legacy (click, click) to an‐
“The Hunters” with this lot sitting there! and Forgive Us Our Tres‐
other square where we passes. We were the only stopped to admire Saint group there at the time and enjoyed a leisurely tour. Ayoul Church. Off again, we circled around and saw the side of the tower where Amanda and Rebecca honed their Of note, a stunning deep green ballroom that, according to swordsmanship (click, click, click) by the side street where the ever‐present laptop, had had much of its artwork re‐
Fitz and Duncan strolled through a “17th century Florentine moved and redecorated for a scene in another episode (I street market” in The Hunters (scurry, click, scurry), to a was startled to discover that the two over‐sized paintings graveyard outside the walls and then back to the tourist in the room, upon close examination, appeared to be information/gift shop where another group awaited our prints!) There was a drawing room in light neutral shades, trolley to obtain more baggage filler. very posh, that had been used as the location of the so‐
prano’s recital and Kalas and Duncan fight that ends Kalas’ Back at the hotel, we had time to refresh before being fer‐
singing career (Methos). ried to Bistro Romain Louvre where we shared the restau‐
rant with a large group of Asian gentlemen that did an entertaining cheer for something or other. Huguette took the long way back to the hotel, so we could enjoy Paris at night, showing off many beautifully lit landmarks as she gave us the Cliff Notes version of their histories. 40
Also noteworthy was the sumptuous blue columned music room where Duncan found Amanda in a harem in “Constantinople” in Finale Part II. Laptopped, photo‐
graphed and toting our newly acquired postcards we stepped through the French doors of the blue room and down to the garden where Methos shot “pain in the ass” Duncan in the back in Forgive Us Our Trespasses. Peter, mustering up “essence of Methos”, obligingly posed for us by Niccolo dellʹAbbate in the 16th Century and boasts beautiful stained glass win‐
dows. The château also homes a unique collection of master pieces: Giotto, Boucher, Houdon... The beautiful park and its rose garden add a romantic landscape to the site. French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau lived in the château.” A leisurely tour around Ferrieres with a 5,000 year old man A pair of regal lions guarded the few steps exiting the garden but left the real work to the two geese vociferously guarding the lake and park below, Undeterred, a few of us ventured out to capture the road where the head Watcher was so unceremoni‐
ously removed from office. Rounding up stragglers wandering the grounds, we departed Ferrières and wound through the surrounding forest to Dammartin en Goele for lunch. A singularly forgettable town of, I’m sure, estimable vintage, it offered a small se‐
lection of restaurants. Our first choice turned proved to be unable to accommo‐
date such a large group and so we all moved on and Judes and I kept moving. Following the very narrow main street we eventually emerged on a small square where a sweet little creperie enticed us. On the way back to the designated rendezvous I had to drag Judes into a patisserie so I could make up for my perceived lack of sweets for the week. After a long wait the small group of us that had been on time (ahem) were finally hailed by, as I recall, Nancye, and we trundled back down the street to the bus. Next stop, Chaalis: “In the heart of the Ermenonville forest, this château was built in the 18th Century near the ruins of an ancient Royal Abbey. The chapel of the Abbey was built by Pierre de Montreuil, the architect who designed the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. It is decorated with magnificent frescoes painted Once on the grounds we all headed for the graceful stones remnants of the abbey where poor Rebecca lost her pretty head in Legacy. Carmel, Nancye and I matched an‐
gles from the DVD for Nancye’s recording photos and I found a small exhibit on the abbey’s history and method of construction in a small room in the ruins. (In French, but well illustrated.) The rest of the group split off to examine the Ferrieres ~ A meeting place for Immortals handsome small freestanding chapel, rose garden, chateau, and scent garden. Beatrice and I enjoyed exploring the chateau filled with a cacophony of art and mementos, pausing to admire the Giotto panels, the room where, I believe, dinner was served in Pharaoh’s Daughter and even upstairs where the last owner had her private rooms. On the way out of the grounds we passed the building where Tessa and Duncan spent their passion in the sculp‐
ture studio in Not to Be (Oh, my God, what a heart wrenching scene!!!!) A rental space, it was in the process of being set up for the next event and so none of the romance lingered. (sigh...) 41
It must be noted that over the course of the day it became obvious that Huguette had fallen under the Wingfield spell. Adrian’s image in the DVDs had elicited an “oh, la la...” so we speculated that she might have been over‐
come had ol’ Duncan ap‐
peared in the flesh! She had her picture taken with our guy and got his autograph to remember him by... Dinner, sans Peter, was in a strange two story bistro filled with a variety of stuffed ani‐
mal parts. Unfortunately the escargot was not brilliant and neither was the dinner. Car‐
mel and Huguette shared a table and worked on the itin‐
erary for the next two days in Paris. Be careful as you walk through the gardens of Ferrieres… you never know what you’ll find waiting to pounce on you from behind the bushes! The daily post‐dinner drinks in the bar was more interest‐
ing than usual due to the presence of many Irish football fans there for a game the next day. Susan brought out the ceramic pig to be embellished with our fingerprints and managed to get half of us before we wore her out. 9 Oct– Paris: Quai de la Tournelle etc Breakfast was almost under control this morning. I said almost... Ah, Paris. First stop, the Quai de la Tournelle, on the Left Bank of the Seine, where in Methos, Methos offers his head to Duncan in the tunnel. Poor Huguette, She kept trying to draw our attention to Notre Dame across the river but we were fixated on Peter and would not be distracted! We at‐
tracted a bit of attention, (I’m sure people were really won‐
dering who the hell we were.) A photo session in front of the tunnel and a Methos Moment in the tunnel itself had us clicking away for a good while. On the way back we tried to be properly impressed with the other landmarks. A short walk brought us to the small park, the Square René Vivani where the Church of St. Julien le Pauvre, Darius’ sanctuary, is located. “Considered to be one of the oldest churches in Paris, the present building has stood for 42
over seven centuries...” After Peter obliged us with some poses in the park we entered the church. I’m sure we were all thinking of Werner Stocker and his untimely death. Darius. Band of Brothers, For Tomorrow We Die, The Beast Below, Saving Grace, The Hunters. I bought a can‐
dle to light and a small metal to remember it by. Very near by was Shakespeare & Co. It was early in the day and so it was closed but served as a perfect backdrop for our Peter. What memorable drama took place in its bowels! Kalas torturing and killing Don Saltzer in Methos. Joe hiding from the Watchers in One Minute to Midnight. After a break for a snack we moved on to the church of St Severin a couple of blocks away: “...in the 6th Century, a hermit named Severin lived ap‐
proximately on this spot. He persuaded Clodoald, grand‐
son of King Clovis, to take holy orders, and an oratory was built here in his memory. Since that time on the same spot several churches have been rebuilt after the existing build‐
ings were destroyed by Norman invasion and by fire. All were called St. Severin, although it is said that only the first was named for the hermit Severin, and the latter ones were named for St. Severinus of Switzerland. The present build‐
ing was under construction from the 13C to the 20C, be‐
cause there was never enough money to finish it. The east end was built at the end of the 15C, and has features of a ʺhall typeʺ church.” washed down the perfect slice of pate served with fig paste, aspic and bri‐
oche toast. Heaven. Susan went straight to a dessert of maximum chocolate, so as not to miss it in our limited time (a wise move as it turned out). There is a colonnade which was used in an ep that totally escapes me. Help!!! It is beautiful. Back on the bus we were then taken to The Place des Vosges also Parisʹs oldest square: ʺ...an early 17th‐
century response to commu‐
nity housing needs...this vast public square with its border of red brick and creamy‐
stone houses perched over a continuous arcade. We strolled through one of the arcades past shops featuring high concept designer cloth‐
ing and art before turning back to walk over to, I believe, Le Musée Carnavalet, a block from the square, which chronicles the history of the Paris. It has a large courtyard that, along with the Place des Vosges arcade, was used in an ep which I totally don’t remember the name of. Something about Duncan being lured to a fight with several guys and Richie comes to the rescue. I think. (Ed: It was The Hunters.) It Anyway, Peter posed, we recorded and left as it started to rain and we beat a retreat. The steady rain that was now falling made the dash around the traffic circle to the bus even more treacherous, but we all made it. Finale, Part II, Duncan and Amanda dancing, Duncan’s final fight with Kalas. On to the Eiffel Tower... in the rain! Lucky us. It would have really sucked if there had‐
n’t been a huge crowd of Irish football fans who couldn’t get in to the game (so we were told) hanging under the center of the tower, drinking, singing and knocking a soccer ball around, many wearing silly costumes and/or face paint. Huguette herded us through the entry line and up the elevator to the second level and let us loose. A couple of hearty souls actually went to the top. Most of us hung there taking limited visibility view shots in the wind and rain with the rest of the tourists, sampled the gift shop and descended to return to the meeting place and the bus. I walked down to the first level rather than stand in line to be crammed into the elevator again. Impressive, majestic, a favorite with the tourists… and Notre Dame is pretty neat, too! <grin> We pulled into the huge roundabout before the new Paris Opera and scattered for a quick lunch. I had expressed my dismay about not having had my quota of good food (this being Paris after all), especially having a need for foie gras, so Sharan suggested a fabulous restaurant she knew near by for a fix. Tres elegant, full of fashionable Parisians, Bowfinger (hard to mention the name without conjuring up Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy) certainly fit the bill. Sharan, Beatrice, Susan, Judes and I had a scrumptious lunch, impeccably served, that could only have been im‐
proved by another hour. Kir, my new drink of choice, Fortunately we had time to dry out before it was time for us to meet in the lobby in our finest to be taken to the din‐
ner cruise on the Seine. Huguette even went home and changed into a spiffy black number. The rain ceased, but we stood in the chill waiting to be let onto our boat a little longer than we would have liked. Squeezed into seats 43
around long tables we were soon warmed up with wine and several courses of quite good food. Peter was stationed at first one table and then another, changing with the courses. (He probably felt like he was one of the courses) The live entertainment was a bit louder than comfortable for conversation but I think we all en‐
joyed our dinner and the breathtaking view of Paris at night (punctuated by the sight of the Eiffel Tower in glitter light mode) floating by. I was sorry it didn’t last longer. I wasn’t alone. The help required the few unopened bot‐
tles of wine that had found their way into bags be given up before exiting. Oops! 10 Oct– Paris: Sacre Coeur etc The morning after a football match makes for a sparsely‐
populated breakfast room. One more time onto a bus and on to Sacre‐Coeur where in To Be Fitz reveals the alternative Tessa to Duncan. No Pe‐
ter. Sniff. “The Sacré‐Coeur Catholic basilica was built at the end of the 19th century at the top of the Montmartre hill in Paris. Its famous white pastry‐like architecture is dominating the city.” After an inauspicious beginning trying to get enough tick‐
ets for the tram ride to the top of the hill, things got better. The circuit of the church interior was interesting but not inspiring because it was so “new”. The view from the top is splendid. Judes and I enjoyed our slow descent of the hill on foot, stopping to get our pictures of the “Tessa” spot and dodging all the trinket hawkers. Early in our tour Huguette had pointed out the old Opera House and there had been a great deal of joking about how we were going to take shots of each other taking shots of the manhole cover that Duncan went down to find Ursa in The Beast Below. Now was our chance. After a short stop at the Place de la Concorde to view the obelisk (Pharaoh’s Daughter?) we pulled up to the Paris opera, the Opéra Garnier, at last. Since the opening of the new opera house it is now exclusively presenting ballet. It 44
is gorgeous example of “baroque neoclassicism” with a highly “ornamented facade, monumental stairs and Italian type hall with Chagall paintings on the ceiling.” And full of tourists. (Surprise!) Inside Carmen pointed out the main staircase where another of the eps was shot. (Notice how I have less memory of these details as it went on? Sad, isn’t it?) I acquired a beautiful wood jigsaw puzzle with Hu‐
guetteʹs help and was soon out the door to join our little throng circling the block to see the roof where Duncan and Ursa fought and, finally, to cross the road to the infamous manhole cover. Click, click, click, click, click! To top off our adventure we returned to Shakespeare & Co. This time it was open and we all wandered through its tight “aisles” looking for the perfect treasure to bring home with “Shakespeare & Co” stamped inside the cover. I chose Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sigh... Exiting the bus at the hotel we all embraced and thanked dear Huguette, now the only guide qualified to lead a Highlander tour. I, after sharing a big hug with Nancye and thanking the indomitable Carmel I fought back tears as I hightailed it out of the lobby (taped by the ever watchful Aine) and down the street to find a cab to Garde Nord and the Eurostar back to London. Thanks everyone for making my excellent adventure even better than expected! *~*~*~*~* The Best Thing
by Susan White
I
slips (boat parking) to the favored, and hosting a private art exhibition in a specially converted area. The two days of the tour I stayed in the hotel to rest were worth it, as I was back on my feet for the two days Peter was with us. ’ve been pulling together some thoughts to write an article for the PWFC newsletter. My idea is to write of favorite things from the France Tour: being in Paris for the first time; two days with Peter Wingfield (!); making new friends and spending special time with already dear ones; Bordeaux and the submarine base...the list is long. Yet I keep coming back to the best thing from that trip, unsure how to express it. Mere words seem inadequate to tell what’s in my heart, but I’ll give them a try. But I’m missing the point of this article, the thing I want you most to know. I wrote that when I’m tired, I don’t think clearly. In fact, the more tired I become, the less clearly I think. Fortunately, I know this, so I’ve learned to swallow my pride and act accordingly. I drop all pretense of self‐sufficiency and ASK people for help. I don’t want to, but I buck up and do. And you know what? The peo‐
ple on tour, these new friends, stepped up and gave gener‐
ously. Soon they voluntarily took me in hand – sometimes literally – making sure I got I have a muscle disorder where I was supposed to be. (myasthenia gravis) that causes I’m not an invalid by any defi‐
fatigue. Basically, the more I use nition, but when I’m tired I get my muscles (to stand, walk, read, confused easily, so it’s best if I drive), the more tired I become. focus on the basics (such as Even tasks we think of as simple, holding Karen’s hand) and let such as writing a check (grasping a others handle the details pen) or brushing my hair (lifting (getting us off the Eiffel Tower). my arm, holding a brush), can be These beautiful people never challenging on some days. Skip‐
made me feel like a burden. ping the boring parts, the worst They didn’t hover, they weren’t thing about having MG is that anxious, and they didn’t baby when I get really tired, I have trou‐
me: they helped me only when ble thinking clearly. Like walking I needed it. One day in fact, an hour and a half to buy scotch asleep, I got left on the bus, tape, but that’s another story. forgotten in the stampede to exit when we stopped for lunch Knowing how important this trip and a potty break. (Okay, I could was to me, I decided before I went Peter, on the steps of the Quai de la Tournelle, have used a nudge that day, but to prioritize. Eight days of sight‐
it wasn’t that important; it was seeing is a very long time, espe‐
cially for someone with fatigue issues. So I chose ahead of just lunch, after all. And if I’m clever enough, I’ll be able time the days and places I wanted most to see, and told to use this as guilt leverage over Dar for years.) myself that if I had to skip the other days in whole or in part so I could nap, that was okay. My goals: the two In the end, words are all I have to describe the best thing days with Peter at the end of the tour, and Bordeaux in the about the Tour to France. My heart is so full that I wanted middle. A couple of dinners with the group, hanging in words that are grand and sweeping and majestic, much the bar at night with the gang, even seeing firsthand the like classical music can be. Suggesting you think of Han‐
architecture of a Medieval town paled in comparison and del’s Halleluiah Chorus is a bit over the top. Maybe the grandeur of a musical score from a movie classic such as were easy to forego. How the West Was Won is a better fit. In the end, though, And I made it. I got to Bordeaux and saw the submarine perhaps it is simply words, and the simplest of them, that say it best: To all of you on the tour, “You made the trip base. It is extraordinary, by the way. It leads an innocu‐
ous existence in reality, offering a couple of the sub bays as spectacular. Thank you for the gift of yourselves.” 45
Jude's Memories
side. by Jude
Clearing our own tables in order to get breakfast to be on the coach in time. A 3 star hotel that couldnʹt get it right but youʹve got to love the Gallic shrug. urtling around the streets of Paris in a 54‐seater coach, miraculously avoiding collision with all the other lunatic drivers on the road. Huguette en‐
deavoring to instill some knowledge of French history and culture into our sadly unreceptive minds. Passing the Paris Opera House, all baroque and gilt, and Carmelʹs cry of, ʺThereʹs the manhole cover!ʺ Conveying regards to Peter from friends who organized Telefantastique in Folkstone, UK. Reminding him that heʹd howled at the moon on the way back to the hotel one eve‐
ning. His slightly puzzled expression as he recalled ʺa very good dinner, at a surprising, for Folkstone, restaurant.ʺ I think the wolf imitation had slipped his mind! H
The dark, crumbling depths of the Bordeaux submarine base. Smell of stagnant water and corroding iron. A hud‐
dle of photographers trying to get just the right angle and exposure on a rotting iron staircase and Carmel shouting from the top of the steps, ʺThe furnitureʹs still here!ʺ Standing on the second stage of the Eiffel Tower in an icy wind that was blowing the rain sideways. Eating Croque Monsieur and tartes au fraise, sitting on the harbour wall, in brilliant sunshine, in Honfleur, watching Aine and Nancye following the absent Carmelʹs instruc‐
tions to take pictures of an empty ramp onto the harbour‐
Up and down the coach steps. Cointreau and good company. Imprinting a china pig with my pinkie. Shopping ‐ though somebody really should have told me about the Sunday trading laws before Sunday! The road to Normandy, first day of the tour, collective singing from the HLWW Songbook. My room‐mate Chrisʹs enthusiasm for ʺI Am Australianʺ and sheʹs from Colorado. Being too early to enter Shakespeare and Co, but that was okay, because Peter ʺhad a keyʺ!! HLWW ~ Keeping ‘a kind of magic’ alive! 46
Encounters With Peter Wingfield
(Or how I made Peter think that I was Very Strange Indeed)
by Sharon
F
irst, you must know that Peterʹs good looks, charm and charisma do not faze me one bit. Iʹve met sev‐
eral actor‐types in various fandoms. Theyʹre just regular people with interesting jobs. Uh‐huh. room. With HIM. Rather, small talk with anyone makes me tongue‐tied. Small? Make that tiny talk. As in, say something engaging in two sentences or less. Not for me. Knowing this, I studi‐
ously avoided going near Peter except when a crowd sur‐
rounded him, a crowd that could pick up the conversa‐
tional slack. Then I saw the girl and boy symbols. Too late. A camera is another great aid. In the event that Peter wan‐
dered my way, I could just whip the camera up to my face ‐‐ an action that was sure to shout, ʺDonʹt bother me, Iʹm focusing!ʺ I squeaked. ʺOooooooops.ʺ Peter smiled and said something, but I have no idea what. Some dusty corner of my mind was noticing: Oh, heʹs go‐
ing to the sink to wash his hands; how nice. The rest of my brain cells were screaming, Get outta here! I obeyed. I dashed to the girly stall, slammed the door shut and locked it. When I got out, Peter was gone. Day 8, St Julien Le Pauvre Day 7, Between Ferrieres & Chaalis I was staying with a friend in Paris, Emmanuelle, before and after the tour. Manu loves receiving postcards. Since she couldnʹt come on the tour, I decided to send her post‐
cards from each place we visited. I also bought postcards A beautiful old church sat across from the restaurant Well, that was the plan. where we had lunch. As I crossed the street to get to the bus, I noticed an interesting wear‐pattern in the churchʹs stone wall. That would make a nice background for Photo‐
shop artwork, I thought. Out came the camera. I leaned in for a close up. Snap! Then I heard a voice. ʺYou take the most interesting photos.ʺ I turned around and Peter was standing directly behind me, a smile on his face. ʺItʹs a nice texture,ʺ I blurted. ʺI have to go now.ʺ And I ran ‐‐ er, walked briskly ‐‐ to the bus. Day 7, Chaalis The gift shop had restrooms... interesting restrooms. There was no ladies room or menʹs room. Oh no. Instead, one room contained two stalls. One stall had a girl symbol on the door and the other, a boy. Naturally, I didnʹt know this at the time. All I saw was a restroom, and a female just left it. My turn next. I stepped inside... and Peter was coming out of a stall. Brain freeze. Ohmygosh ohmygosh I was in the menʹs Peter inside St Julien Le Pauvre (Darius’s Church) 47
for myself. Cheap souvenirs. The group emitted a chorus of Ozzy‐groans: ʺSharon!!!ʺ I noticed a small room at the back of St Julienʹs. Dariusʹ office? I poked my head inside to look. Someone was sell‐
ing postcards. Cool! By the time I finished my purchase, no one else from the tour group was around. Except Peter. Taking a photo of a sign on St Julienʹs door. I realized that they were waiting for Peter to come out for a photo op ‐‐ and that Peter had made sure I left first in order to foil their plans. I thought it would be cute to take a photo of Peter taking a photo. Out came the camera. At the flash Peter turned around and saw me. I shrugged (what I hoped was) non‐
chalantly. Day 8, Bleu Marine Hotel Oh, Peter, youʹre so eeeeeeeevil! I donʹt remember who got in the elevator first ‐‐ whether Peter was there when my roommate Becky and I stepped in, or whether he entered after us. ʺSorry, I couldnʹt resist.ʺ The doors closed. And music was in the air. Peter was singing softly to himself. Iʹm not sure if he was aware he was doing it. I recog‐
nized the song ‐‐ Guantanamera ‐‐ except Peter had replaced ʺguantanameraʺ with something like ʺone elevator.ʺ I stepped forward to see what the sign said. It was in French ‐‐ I canʹt remember the exact words, but the meaning was: Please turn off your cell phone. God can only be reached through prayer, not phones. Guantanamera. A Julio Iglesias song. A song that my dad likes to sing. Loudly. And off‐key. I inter‐
rupted Peterʹs reverie. Peter read the French out loud. Of course, I couldnʹt think of anything to say. Probably as‐
suming that I didnʹt know French, Peter translated it into English. I thought of something to say: ʺI can read French.ʺ Brilliant. ʺPlease donʹt sing that. My dad sings that. Thatʹs not a good asso‐
ciation.ʺ Realizing that I might have sounded a bit harsh, I gave him a light jab in the arm. No hard feel‐
ings? Yes, hitting Peter was sure to win him over. Stupid me. Peter said he liked the senti‐
ments the sign expressed. He said a few things more; I canʹt remember what because I was too busy trying to think of something to say. Finally I interjected, ʺI like those ʹturn off your cell phoneʹ signs on the trains with the sleepy cell phone faces.ʺ ʺI donʹt think your dad was sing‐
ing about elevators,ʺ Peter re‐
plied. Did he sound miffed? I couldnʹt tell. Peter walking out of St Julien Le Pauvre (Darius’s Church) Silence. Now Peter couldnʹt think of anything to say. I waited for him to leave so I could get a photo of the sign too, but he wasnʹt moving. Maybe he was just being polite and waiting for me to leave first. ʺI think Iʹll go now,ʺ I said. I pushed open the door and stepped outside... to face the entire tour group with their cameras pointed at me. 48
I was about to say, ʺYou havenʹt heard my dad sing,ʺ but the elevator dinged. My floor. Saved by the bell. I spent the next few hours worrying about whether I had offended Peter. With an endless medley of Guantanamera stuck in my head. Stupid song. Day 8, Seine Dinner Cruise During one of our nightly forays to the hotelʹs bar, a dis‐
cussion popped up about honesty. I canʹt remember the exact example given, but it was something like: if you were talking to a friend with food stuck in her teeth, would you tell her and share her momentary embarrassment or pre‐
tend to see nothing? I said I thought it was better to speak up. French Tour Ramblings
by Nancye Elliott
T
he flight is a long one from Sydney to London; so to help fill in the time I bought a copy of ʹPobby and Dinganʹ. This is the book Peter read from in Orlando. It was a delightful surprise and I thought to discuss it with him given the chance. I am in my hotel room in London. Thud! I turn around and see that my backpack has fallen from the chair and my camera is lying on the floor. Rude words are uttered along with, “Carmel is going to kill me!” Check camera – not working – frantic phone calls home and instructions to my daughter to find and deliver the instruction manual to Carmel before she leaves Sydney. Eventually all is well, camera working fine. <sigh> Walking through the British Museum with Aine. Laughing together and talking about the many ex‐
Dinner on the Seine On the Seine dinner cruise, it was a brilliant idea to rotate Peter to different tables for each course of the meal. Once I had the opportunity to talk to Peter at some length, with‐
out the pressure of squeezing a conversation into a minute timeframe, the words flowed easily. Naturally. I even snuck in an apology. I basked in the glow of showing Peter that I was not an idiot. I sat across the table and one chair to Peterʹs right, a great spot for long gazes at Peter without being obvious about it. The dimmed lights in the room cast a warm glow on Pe‐
terʹs face. He turned to the left to talk to a table‐mate and I saw that great profile. A strand of dust was hanging off his nose. Barely noticeable, you could only see it when the light hit Peterʹs face at a certain angle. But, of course, once noticed, it was like a target stuck to his nose. I watched mesmerized as the strand waved back and forth whenever Peter moved his head. Should I? Shouldnʹt I? Should I? Shouldnʹt I? It was an easy decision. I didnʹt say a word. Um, Peter isnʹt going to read this, is he? Gulp.
The view from the top of Notre Dame 49
hibits we can relate back to a certain 5000 year old Immor‐
tal. It is amazing how your perceptions can be changed. Huguette is still trying to figure out what on earth we are up to. In Paris. Reacquainting myself with my roommate for the next few days, Susan. What a delight. A wonderful time cruising down the Seine, past Notre Dame, the Quai, Eiffel Tower and a to‐die‐for hot chocolate afterwards. Huguette is to have her first indoctrination! She hasn’t a clue about Highlander so we find a small room with a tele‐
vision. Beatrice has bought a DVD player with her! Carmel of course has the DVDs. Carmel is certain that the rest of Deliverance was filmed around Le Havre. If we look closely enough maybe we will recognize something. This is the first step down the slippery slope for our poor tour guide. We watch. She sees Duncan: “Ooh la‐la…” as she stares fixedly at the screen. Now she is looking both to see the guys, and, under‐
standing dawning, the location. Duncan is walking down the street. Huguette mut‐
ters, “I think I know this place.” Carmel is transfixed! Duncan comes tumbling down the stairs and Methos drives up. She sees Methos – “He is the one coming on Fri‐
day,” we tell her. “Oh myyyy,” she says. Then “I do, I do know this place. It is Hon‐
fleur. I’m sure it is Honfleur!” Needless to say our itinerary for the next day was re‐
written and poor Huguette has fallen. The hunt for the butcher shop from the Evil Duncan arc is successful! Thinking I would die as Karen and I followed Aine up to the top of Notre Dame. The view and photos were worth it though. We arrive in Honfleur. Huguette, now begin‐
ning to understand, explains to our bus driver, Freddy, what we are doing and why Carmel has pulled out a laptop and why we are all staring at it. He Carmel arriving like a whirlwind! Tour books to put together, plans to go over, schedules and hotel rooms to check…. It truly begins…. We are in a little village called Etretat not far from Le Havre. On a hill, overlooking the most wonderful view of the village and coastline, is the church where Evil Duncan steals the car from the poor un‐
suspecting couple and nearly knocks Methos flying as he drives away. Other people are admiring the view and taking photos of the scenery. Me, I’m taking umpteen photos of the church from every angle (Carmel is sooo not a director – “Just take photos of everything she says.” ::sigh::) and walks off trying to figure out a way we can actually get inside and see if they filmed the rest there! Our poor guide 50
The almost intact lair of the Four Horsemen. (For Sale: One chair and table. Slight restoration work required!) tourists so she is telling us all about it, when Carmel sud‐
denly yells out “Look there is the manhole cover that Dun‐
can and Richie climbed down.” All eyes turn to the ground and poor Huguette just sits there trying to figure out what on earth is going on. It has been a long time since I laughed so much. Poor Huguette. Bordeaux, a beautiful city. We have a new guide, she does‐
n’t get it, but does her best. I think if I was homicidally in‐
clined, then Carmel could have met her end here. Multiple photos of bridges that maybe the right ones but take the photos just in case! The lovely fountain where Duncan found the bomb that Methos told him about. Ten minutes taking photos from every angle, zoomed in and out, long shots and close ups. Carmel: “What are you doing? That is the wrong one, it was around the other side!” Aine and I just looked at each other as our fearless leader strode off again and we went around and did it all again on the other side. Oh my, the Submarine Base. Carmel worked incredibly hard before the trip to just get us inside. This was amazing in itself, then asked the gentleman who was escorting us through if we could see Bay 9. Yes. Well, what can I say? It was stunning. A whole lot of the set was still there, most especially the stairway that Duncan stood at the top of talk‐
ing to Kronos. We were able to go up a few at a time. What looks at the screen and now he is totally involved. He knows where the little lane is where Evil!Duncan walks past the butcher shop. So off we stride through the truly picturesque seaside village to find said site. Sure enough there it is. Freddy is a hero and another Highlander location is found. Ah, Freddy… sitting beside the harbor in Honfleur having lunch with Carmel, Aine and Linda May. Freddy joins us, much to my delight. Such a lovely man. He orders mussels and they look delicious but much smaller than we have at home. He has the most interesting way of eating them. I am to‐
tally fascinated. He gives me a lesson on how to use one mussel shell to get the meat out of an‐
other. It is a good day that you learn something new, and such a lovely way to learn. The mussels tasted really good too. “Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse ‐ doesnʹt quite have the same ring to it, now does it, Kronos?ʺ Of course poor Huguette hasn’t quite got it yet but is about to get another lesson. As we are driving around Paris on our way back to the hotel we go past “The Opera”, a most impressive and famous building. did we find? The table and chairs and a number of other Huguette is still trying to pretend that we are “normal” items were still there. Many photos taken. Again from Car‐
51
how he came to read an Australian story that was fairly obscure even here. A friend of a friend recommended it to him. We discussed the language and how authentically it had been repro‐
duced. Whether the author was English. If so I thought he must have spent some time in Australia. Following our discus‐
sion about this book Carmel spoke in great depth about a number of books she had read. At one stage Peter turned to us with a twinkle in his eye and said, “She is very deep, isn’t she?” We broke up laughing. Carmel then told him the manhole cover story (proving my com‐
ment to him earlier that she could be shallow too). He grinned hugely and shook his head. Now to the Eiffel Tower. Who would have thought that we could have so much fun in the pouring rain? The Irish were in town. We know this because they were occupying every room at our hotel not taken by us it seemed, and a very enthusiastic lot they were too! Their soccer team was to play the French on Saturday night. So on Saturday after‐
noon many of them decided to visit the Tower, not as far as I could tell to look at it but to congregate as a very large, very vocal and very green crowd underneath. They had a light (thankfully) soccer ball, or perhaps a couple of balls. They were playing a game that seemed to require the ball to stay in the air so it was punched and kicked all over the place accompanied by much laughter and yells and chant‐
ing. Well we all stood and watched laughing our heads off looking like drowned rats. Peter obviously thought it was great as he joined in with the chanting and yelling with much enthusiasm. It was a grave challenge for me though! Trying to dodge the ball, take photos, change film, keep my camera dry and laugh all at the same time! Carmel greeting our Guest of Honor at the airport mel: “Just take photos of everything!” No, Carmel didn’t take them to auction; they were too big even for her! Now let me tell you about Benjamin! The most incredible young man working the Reception desk at out hotel. I sooooo wanted to bring him back for one of my children. He was in his early twenties I guess, oh so good looking, so funny, such a flirt! He absolutely had me in stitches, which at midnight wasn’t bad! According to him, “There are no such things as problems, only solutions” and I have to tell you he lived up to this motto. Provins, an amazing medieval town. The laptop was out again! Carmel was her usual self except this time we had to jump on and off the little train that took tourists around the place. Of course this meant that another Frenchman de‐
cided that we were all crazy. Did Carmel want the com‐
mentary? No of course not. Did she want him to stop at all the “usual” places? No of course not. Did she sit and yell “stop” to him at the strangest places? Yes, of course. Did she yell, “Make sure you get that photo and that angle,” and in the same breath yell, “Hurry up, the train has to go?” She most certainly did. Did I run? Absolutely! It is now Thursday night and Peter is flying in. We are off to the airport on the shuttle bus. He came out of customs and was charming and witty as always. It took some time to get back to the hotel so much conversation ensued. He asked how everything was going and what had we done. I did get to talk to him about “Pobby and Dingan”. I asked 52
So many wonderful memories. So many left out of these ramblings. Such fun with lovely people and yet again a whole new lot of friends made. I never cease to be amazed that one television show could lead to so much. It is scary to think that I might not have ever found it and this may not have happened for me. Thank you, Carmel and all my travel companions, and the ever wonderful and charming Peter Wingfield. *~*~*~*~* A few more memories
53